Sample records for owned electric utilities

The Financial Statistics of Major Publicly OwnedElectricUtilities publication presents summary and detailed financial accounting data on the publicly ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with data that can be used for policymaking and decisionmaking purposes relating to publicly ownedelectricutility issues.

The Financial Statistics of Selected Investor-OwnedElectricUtilities publication presents summary and detailed financial accounting data on the investor-ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide the Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with current and historical data that can be used for policymaking and decisionmaking purposes related to investor-ownedelectricutility issues.

The 1993 edition of the Financial Statistics of Major U.S. Publicly OwnedElectricUtilities publication presents five years (1989 to 1993) of summary financial data and current year detailed financial data on the major publicly ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with current and historical data that can be used for policymaking and decision making purposes related to publicly ownedelectricutility issues. Generator and nongenerator summaries are presented in this publication. The primary source of publicly owned financial data is the Form EIA-412, the Annual Report of Public ElectricUtilities, filed on a fiscal basis.

This publication presents 5 years (1990--94) of summary financial data and current year detailed financial data on the major publicly ownedelectricutilities. Generator and nongenerator summaries are presented. Composite tables present: Aggregates of income statement and balance sheet data, financial indicators, electric operation and maintenance expenses, electricutility plant, number of consumers, sales of electricity, and operating revenue, and electric energy account data.

The 1992 edition of the Financial Statistics of Major US Publicly OwnedElectricUtilities publication presents 4 years (1989 through 1992) of summary financial data and current year detailed financial data on the major publicly ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with current and historical data that can be used for policymaking and decisionmaking purposes related to publicly ownedelectricutility issues. Generator and nongenerator summaries are presented in this publication. Four years of summary financial data are provided. Summaries of generators for fiscal years ending June 30 and December 31, nongenerators for fiscal years ending June 30 and December 31, and summaries of all respondents are provided. The composite tables present aggregates of income statement and balance sheet data, as well as financial indicators. Composite tables also display electric operation and maintenance expenses, electricutility plant, number of consumers, sales of electricity, and operating revenue, and electric energy account data. The primary source of publicly owned financial data is the Form EIA-412, {open_quotes}Annual Report of Public ElectricUtilities.{close_quotes} Public electricutilities file this survey on a fiscal year, rather than a calendar year basis, in conformance with their recordkeeping practices. In previous editions of this publication, data were aggregated by the two most commonly reported fiscal years, June 30 and December 31. This omitted approximately 20 percent of the respondents who operate on fiscal years ending in other months. Accordingly, the EIA undertook a review of the Form EIA-412 submissions to determine if alternative classifications of publicly ownedelectricutilities would permit the inclusion of all respondents.

The 1996 edition of The Financial Statistics of Major US Publicly OwnedElectricUtilities publication presents 5 years (1992 through 1996) of summary financial data and current year detailed financial data on the major publicly ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with current and historical data that can be used for policymaking and decision making purposes related to publicly ownedelectricutility issues. Generator and nongenerator summaries are presented in this publication. Five years of summary financial data are provided. Summaries of generators for fiscal years ending June 30 and December 31, nongenerators for fiscal years ending June 30 and December 31, and summaries of all respondents are provided. The composite tables present aggregates of income statement and balance sheet data, as well as financial indicators. Composite tables also display electric operation and maintenance expenses, electricutility plant, number of consumers, sales of electricity, and operating revenue, and electric energy account data. 2 figs., 32 tabs.

The Financial Statistics of Selected Publicly OwnedElectricUtilities publication presents summary and detailed financial accounting data on the publicly ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide the Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with data that can be used for policymaking and decision making purposes relating to publicly ownedelectricutility issues. 21 tabs.

The Financial Statistics of Major US Investor-OwnedElectricUtilities publication presents summary and detailed financial accounting data on the investor-ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with current and historical data that can be used for policymaking and decisionmaking purposes related to investor-ownedelectricutility issues.

The Financial Statistics of Major U.S. Investor-OwnedElectricUtilities publication presents summary and detailed financial accounting data on the investor-ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide Federal and State Governments, industry, and the general public with current and historical data that can be used for making policy and decisions relating to investor-ownedelectricutility issues.

The Financial Statistics of Major US Investor-OwnedElectricUtilities publication presents summary and detailed financial accounting data on the investor-ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with current and historical data that can be used for policymaking and decisionmaking purposes related to investor-ownedelectricutility issues. The Financial Statistics of Major US Investor-OwnedElectricUtilities publication provides information about the financial results of operations of investor-ownedelectricutilities for use by government, industry, electricutilities, financial organizations and educational institutions in energy planning. In the private sector, the readers of this publication are researchers and analysts associated with the financial markets, the policymaking and decisionmaking members of electricutility companies, and economic development organizations. Other organizations that may be interested in the data presented in this publication include manufacturers of electric power equipment and marketing organizations. In the public sector, the readers of this publication include analysts, researchers, statisticians, and other professionals engaged in regulatory, policy, and program areas. These individuals are generally associated with the Congress, other legislative bodies, State public utility commissions, universities, and national strategic planning organizations.

The 1997 edition of the ``Financial Statistics of Major U.S. Publicly OwnedElectricUtilities`` publication presents 5 years (1993 through 1997) of summary financial data and current year detailed financial data on the major publicly ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with current and historical data that can be used for policymaking and decisionmaking purposes related to publicly ownedelectricutility issues. Generator (Tables 3 through 11) and nongenerator (Tables 12 through 20) summaries are presented in this publication. Five years of summary financial data are provided (Tables 5 through 11 and 14 through 20). Summaries of generators for fiscal years ending June 30 and December 31, nongenerators for fiscal years ending June 30 and December 31, and summaries of all respondents are provided in Appendix C. The composite tables present aggregates of income statement and balance sheet data, as well as financial indicators. Composite tables also display electric operation and maintenance expenses, electricutility plant, number of consumers, sales of electricity, operating revenue, and electric energy account data. The primary source of publicly owned financial data is the Form EIA-412, ``Annual Report of Public ElectricUtilities.`` Public electricutilities file this survey on a fiscal year basis, in conformance with their recordkeeping practices. The EIA undertook a review of the Form EIA-412 submissions to determine if alternative classifications of publicly ownedelectricutilities would permit the inclusion of all respondents. The review indicated that financial indicators differ most according to whether or not a publicly ownedelectricutility generates electricity. Therefore, the main body of the report provides summary information in generator/nongenerator classifications. 2 figs., 101 tabs.

The 1995 Edition of the Financial Statistics of Major U.S. Publicly OwnedElectricUtilities publication presents 5 years (1991 through 1995) of summary financial data and current year detailed financial data on the major publicly ownedelectricutilities. The objective of the publication is to provide Federal and State governments, industry, and the general public with current and historical data that can be used for policymaking and decisionmaking purposes related to publicly ownedelectricutility issues. Generator (Tables 3 through 11) and nongenerator (Tables 12 through 20) summaries are presented in this publication. Five years of summary financial data are provided (Tables 5 through 11 and 14 through 20). Summaries of generators for fiscal years ending June 30 and December 31, nongenerators for fiscal years ending June 30 and December 31, and summaries of all respondents are provided in Appendix C. The composite tables present aggregates of income statement and balance sheet data, as well as financial indicators. Composite tables also display electric operation and maintenance expenses, electricutility plant, number of consumers, sales of electricity, and operating revenue, and electric energy account data. 9 figs., 87 tabs.

To assist in its these responsibilities in the area of electric power, EIA has prepared this report, Financial Impacts of Nonutility Power Purchases on Investor-OwnedElectricUtilities. The primary purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the issues surrounding the financial impacts of nonutility generation contracts (since the passage of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978) on investor-ownedutilities. The existing concern in this area is manifest in the provisions of Section 712 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which required State regulatory commissions to evaluate various aspects of long-term power purchase contracts, including their impact on investor-ownedutilities` cost of capital and rates charged to customers. The EIA does not take positions on policy questions. The EIA`s responsibility is to provide timely, high quality information and to perform objective, credible analyses in support of the deliberations by both public and private decision-makers. Accordingly, this report does not purport to represent the policy positions of the US Department of Energy or the Administration.

The objective of this study was to examine and document the issues surrounding the curtailment in commercialization of large-scale electric storage projects. It was sensed that if these issues could be uncovered, then efforts might be directed toward clearing away these barriers and allowing these technologies to penetrate the market to their maximum potential. Joint-ownership of these projects was seen as a possible solution to overcoming the major barriers, particularly economic barriers, of commercializaton. Therefore, discussions with partners involved in four pumped storage projects took place to identify the difficulties and advantages of joint-ownership agreements. The four plants surveyed included Yards Creek (Public Service Electric and Gas and Jersey Central Power and Light); Seneca (Pennsylvania Electric and Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company); Ludington (Consumers Power and Detroit Edison, and Bath County (Virginia Electric Power Company and Allegheny Power System, Inc.). Also investigated were several pumped storage projects which were never completed. These included Blue Ridge (American Electric Power); Cornwall (Consolidated Edison); Davis (Allegheny Power System, Inc.) and Kttatiny Mountain (General Public Utilities). Institutional, regulatory, technical, environmental, economic, and special issues at each project were investgated, and the conclusions relative to each issue are presented. The major barriers preventing the growth of energy storage are the high cost of these systems in times of extremely high cost of capital, diminishing load growth and regulatory influences which will not allow the building of large-scale storage systems due to environmental objections or other reasons. However, the future for energy storage looks viable despite difficult economic times for the utility industry. Joint-ownership can ease some of the economic hardships for utilites which demonstrate a need for energy storage.

COMPLEAT takes its name, as an acronym, from Community-Oriented Model for Planning Least-Cost Energy Alternatives and Technologies. It is an electricutility planning model designed for use principally by publicly ownedelectricutilities and agencies serving such utilities. As a model, COMPLEAT is significantly more full-featured and complex than called out in APPA's original plan and proposal to DOE. The additional complexity grew out of a series of discussions early in the development schedule, in which it became clear to APPA staff and advisors that the simplicity characterizing the original plan, while highly desirable in terms of utility applications, was not achievable if practical utility problems were to be addressed. The project teams settled on Energy 20/20, an existing model developed by Dr. George Backus of Policy Assessment Associates, as the best candidate for the kinds of modifications and extensions that would be required. The remainder of the project effort was devoted to designing specific input data files, output files, and user screens and to writing and testing the compute programs that would properly implement the desired features around Energy 20/20 as a core program. This report presents in outline form, the features and user interface of COMPLEAT.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1979 requires that electricalutilities interconnect with qualifying facilities and purchase electricity at a rate based upon their full avoided costs (i.e., costs of providing both capacity and energy). Qualifying facilities (QF) include solar or geothermal electric units, hydropower, municipal solid waste or biomass-fired power plants, and cogeneration projects that satisfy maximum size, fuel use, ownership, location, and/or efficiency criteria. In Washington State, neither standard power purchase prices based upon a proxy ''avoided plant'', standard contracts, or a standard offer process have been used. Instead, a variety of power purchase contracts have been negotiated by developers of qualifying facilities with investor-ownedutilities, public utility districts, and municipally-owned and operated utilities. With a hydro-based system, benefits associated with resource acquisition are determined in large part by how compatible the resource is with a utility's existing generation mix. Power purchase rates are negotiated and vary according to firm energy production, guarantees, ability to schedule maintenance or downtime, rights of refusal, power plant purchase options, project start date and length of contract; front-loading or levelization provisions; and the ability of the project to provide ''demonstrated'' capacity. Legislation was also enacted which allows PURPA to work effectively. Initial laws established ownership rights and provided irrigation districts, PUDs, and municipalities with expanded enabling powers. Financial processes were streamlined and, in some cases, simplified. Finally, laws were passed which are designed to ensure that development proceeds in an environmentally acceptable manner. In retrospect, PURPA has worked well within Washington. In the state of Washington, 20 small-scale hydroelectric projects with a combined generating capacity of 77 MW, 3 solid waste-to-energy facilities

SAGE-WASP is designed to find the optimal generation expansion policy for an electricalutility system. New units can be automatically selected from a user-supplied list of expansion candidates which can include hydroelectric and pumped storage projects. The existing system is modeled. The calculational procedure takes into account user restrictions to limit generation configurations to an area of economic interest. The optimization program reports whether the restrictions acted as a constraint on the solution. All expansionmore » configurations considered are required to pass a user supplied reliability criterion. The discount rate and escalation rate are treated separately for each expansion candidate and for each fuel type. All expenditures are separated into local and foreign accounts, and a weighting factor can be applied to foreign expenditures.« less

The 1982 increase in revenues and net income for the top 100 electricutilities is misleading because the figure is distorted by the allowance for funds used during construction (AFUDC), which overstates the real dollar strength of most investor-ownedutilities. A random sampling of profit and loss statements shows that companies heavily involved in plant construction can have AFUDC over 100% of net income. The average is 50% of utility earnings, while cash dividends run 75% of earnings. The problem is short-term, however, and will diminish as construction is completed. A summary of utility performance presents earnings growth statistics, sales data and comparisons, financial statistics, and income statistics and comparisons. A summary financial table lists the 100 utilities in alphabetical order. 7 tables. (DCK)

The author discusses the history of rural electric cooperatives (REC) in the United States, and the broader question of whether such organizations can serve as a model for rural electrification in other countries. The author points out the features of such cooperatives which have given them stability and strength, and emphasizes that for success of such programs, many of these same features must be present. He definitely feels the cooperative models are not outdated, but they need strong local support, and a governmental structure which is supportive, and in particular not negative.

The purpose of Form EI-826 formerly FERC-5, ElectricUtility Company Monthly Statement, is to collect data necessary to fulfill regulatory responsibility; identify near-term trends in energy use; and contingency analysis. The form is filed monthly by approximately 150 electricutilities. All privately ownedelectricutilities with annual electric operating revenues of $100,000,000 or more must respond. In addition, the sample includes other selected electricutilities. The reported data is expanded by factors, calculated using annual data from a previous period, to give electric sales data by state and sector. Other information collected includes data gathered on depreciation, construction, net income before taxes, and extraordinary items.

Form EI-826, formerly FERC-5, ElectricUtility Company Monthly Statement, collects data necessary to fulfill regulatory responsibility; identify near-term trends in energy use; and contingency analysis. The form is filed monthly by approximately 150 electricutilities. All privately ownedelectricutilities with annual electric operating revenues of $100,000,000 or more must respond. In addition, the sample includes other selected electricutilities. The reported data is expanded by factors, calculated using annual data from a previous period, to give electric sales data by state and sector. Other information collected includes data gathered on depreciation, construction, net income before taxes, and extraordinary items.

Estimates of stranded commitments for U.S. investor-ownedutilities range widely, with many falling in the range of $100 to $200 billion. These potential losses exist because some utility-owned power plants, long-term power-purchase contracts and fuel-supply contracts, regulatory assets, and expenses for public-policy programs have book values that exceed their expected market values under full competition. This report quantifies the sensitivity of stranded- commitment estimates to the various factors that lead to these above- market-value estimates. The purpose of these sensitivity analyses is to improve understanding on the part of state and federal regulators, utilities, customers, and other electric-industry participants about the relative importance of the factors that affect stranded- commitment amounts.

An innovative clean coal technology project in Texas will supply electricity to the largest municipally ownedutility in the United States under a recently signed Power Purchase Agreement, the U.S. Department of Energy announced today.

In order to determine the overall fuel economy of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), the amount of operation in charge depleting (CD) versus charge sustaining modes must be determined. Mode of operation is predominantly dependent on customer usage of the vehicle and is therefore highly variable. The utility factor (UF) concept was developed to quantify the distance a group of vehicles has traveled or may travel in CD mode. SAE J2841 presents a UF calculation method based on data collected from travel surveys of conventional vehicles. UF estimates have been used in a variety of areas, including the calculation of window sticker fuel economy, policy decisions, and vehicle design determination. The EV Project, a plug-in electric vehicle charging infrastructure demonstration being conducted across the United States, provides the opportunity to determine the real-world UF of a large group of privately owned Chevrolet Volt extended range electric vehicles. Using data collected from Volts enrolled in The EV Project, this paper compares the real-world UF of two groups of Chevrolet Volts to estimated UF's based on J2841. The actual observed fleet utility factors (FUF) for the MY2011/2012 and MY2013 Volt groups studied were observed to be 72% and 74%, respectively. Using the EPA CD ranges, the method prescribed by J2841 estimates a FUF of 65% and 68% for the MY2011/2012 and MY2013 Volt groups, respectively. Volt drivers achieved higher percentages of distance traveled in EV mode for two reasons. First, they had fewer long-distance travel days than drivers in the national travel survey referenced by J2841. Second, they charged more frequently than the J2841 assumption of once per day - drivers of Volts in this study averaged over 1.4 charging events per day. Although actual CD range varied widely as driving conditions varied, the average CD ranges for the two Volt groups studied matched the EPA CD range estimates, so CD range variation did not affect FUF results.

In its simplest form, this model was to obtain meaningful data on the current state of the Site`s electrical transmission and distribution assets, and turn this vast collection of data into useful information. The resulting product is an ElectricalUtilities Model for Determining Electrical Distribution Capacity which provides: current state of the electrical transmission and distribution systems; critical Hanford Site needs based on outyear planning documents; decision factor model. This model will enable ElectricalUtilities management to improve forecasting requirements for service levels, budget, schedule, scope, and staffing, and recommend the best path forward to satisfy customer demands at the minimum risk and least cost to the government. A dynamic document, the model will be updated annually to reflect changes in Hanford Site activities.

This report presents a new approach to estimating the marginal utility sector impacts associated with electricity demand reductions. The method uses publicly available data and provides results in the form of time series of impact factors. The input data are taken from the Energy Information Agency's Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) projections of how the electric system might evolve in the reference case, and in a number of side cases that incorporate different effciency and other policy assumptions. The data published with the AEO are used to define quantitative relationships between demand-side electricity reductions by end use and supply-side changes to capacity by plant type, generation by fuel type and emissions of CO2, Hg, NOx and SO2. The impact factors define the change in each of these quantities per unit reduction in site electricity demand. We find that the relative variation in these impacts by end use is small, but the time variation can be significant.

Two new High Slot Utilization (HSU) Systems for electric machines enable the use of form wound coils that have the highest fill factor and the best use of magnetic materials. The epoxy/resin/curing treatment ensures the mechanical strength of the assembly of teeth, core, and coils. In addition, the first HSU system allows the coil layers to be moved inside the slots for the assembly purpose. The second system uses the slided-in teeth instead of the plugged-in teeth. The power density of the electric machine that uses either system can reach its highest limit.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) periodically surveys the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and state regulatory commissions that regulate utility owners of nuclear power plants. The NRC is interested in identifying states that have established economic or performance incentive programs applicable to nuclear power plants, how the programs are being implemented, and in determining the financial impact of the programs on the utilities. The NRC interest stems from the fact that such programs have the potential to adversely affect the safety of nuclear power plants. The current report is an update of NUREG/CR-5975, Incentive Regulation of Investor-Owned Nuclear Power Plants by Public Utility Regulators, published in January 1993. The information in this report was obtained from interviews conducted with each state regulatory agency that administers an incentive program and each utility that owns at least 10% of an affected nuclear power plant. The agreements, orders, and settlements that form the basis for each incentive program were reviewed as required. The interviews and supporting documentation form the basis for the individual state reports describing the structure and financial impact of each incentive program.

A geomagnetic disturbance (GMD) by its nature occurs globally and almost simultaneously. Severe geomagnetic storms cause problems for electric power systems. The vulnerability of electric power systems to such events has apparently increased during the last 10 to 20 years because power system transmission lines have become more interconnected and have increased in length and because power systems are now operated closer to their limits than in the past. In this report, the experience of electricutilities during geomagnetic storms is examined and analyzed. Measured data, effects on power system components, and power system impacts are considered. It has been found that electric power systems are susceptible to geomagnetically induced earth-surface potential gradients as small as a few (2 to 3) volts per kilometer, corresponding to a storm of K-6 intensity over an area of high earth resistivity. The causes and effects are reasonably well understood, but additional research is needed to develop a better understanding of solar-induced geomagnetic storms and the responses of power systems to these types of storms. A better understanding of geomagnetic storms and the power systems' responses to GMDs is needed so that mitigation measures can be implemented that will make power systems less susceptible to severe geomagnetic disturbances. A GMD caused by a large high-altitude nuclear detonation is similar in many ways to that of solar-induced geomagnetic storms except that a nuclear-caused disturbance would be much more intense with a far shorter duration.

A geomagnetic disturbance (GMD) by its nature occurs globally and almost simultaneously. Severe geomagnetic storms cause problems for electric power systems. The vulnerability of electric power systems to such events has apparently increased during the last 10 to 20 years because power system transmission lines have become more interconnected and have increased in length and because power systems are now operated closer to their limits than in the past. In this report, the experience of electricutilities during geomagnetic storms is examined and analyzed. Measured data, effects on power system components, and power system impacts are considered. It has been found that electric power systems are susceptible to geomagnetically induced earth-surface potential gradients as small as few (2 to 3) volts per kilometer, corresponding to a storm of K-6 intensity over an area of high earth resistivity. The causes and effects are reasonably well understood, but additional research is needed to develop a better understanding of solar-induced geomagnetic storms and the responses of power systems to these types of storms. A better understanding of geomagnetic storms and the power systems` responses to GMDs is needed so that mitigation measures can be implemented that will make power systems less susceptible to severe geomagnetic disturbances. A GMD caused by a large high-altitude nuclear detonation is similar in many ways to that of solar-induced geomagnetic storms except that a nuclear-caused disturbance would be much more intense with a far shorter duration. 49 refs.

A geomagnetic disturbance (GMD) by its nature occurs globally and almost simultaneously. Severe geomagnetic storms cause problems for electric power systems. The vulnerability of electric power systems to such events has apparently increased during the last 10 to 20 years because power system transmission lines have become more interconnected and have increased in length and because power systems are now operated closer to their limits than in the past. In this report, the experience of electricutilities during geomagnetic storms is examined and analyzed. Measured data, effects on power system components, and power system impacts are considered. It has been found that electric power systems are susceptible to geomagnetically induced earth-surface potential gradients as small as few (2 to 3) volts per kilometer, corresponding to a storm of K-6 intensity over an area of high earth resistivity. The causes and effects are reasonably well understood, but additional research is needed to develop a better understanding of solar-induced geomagnetic storms and the responses of power systems to these types of storms. A better understanding of geomagnetic storms and the power systems' responses to GMDs is needed so that mitigation measures can be implemented that will make power systems less susceptible to severe geomagnetic disturbances. A GMD caused by a large high-altitude nuclear detonation is similar in many ways to that of solar-induced geomagnetic storms except that a nuclear-caused disturbance would be much more intense with a far shorter duration. 49 refs.

Final issue of this report. Provides detailed statistics on existing generating units operated by electricutilities as of December 31, 2000, and certain summary statistics about new generators planned for operation by electricutilities during the next 5 years.

August 2010 | Department of Energy New Madrid Seismic Zone ElectricUtility Workshop Summary Report - August 2010 DOE New Madrid Seismic Zone ElectricUtility Workshop Summary Report - August 2010 The DOE New Madrid Seismic Zone ElectricUtilities Workshop, held in Memphis, TN, in July 2010 for the electricutilities in the seismic zone was a chance to bring together a diverse set of industry partners to discuss the potential effects of an earthquake in the New Madrid and Wabash Valley

Trends in the ElectricUtility Industry Workforce Trends in the ElectricUtility Industry Section 1101 of the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT)1 calls for a report on the current trends in the workforce of (A) skilled technical personnel that support energy technology industries, and (B) electric power and transmission engineers. It also requests that the Secretary make recommendations (as appropriate) to meet the future labor requirements. Workforce Trends in the ElectricUtility Industry

October 2010 | Department of Energy An Updated Assessement of Copper Wire Thefts from ElectricUtilities - October 2010 An Updated Assessement of Copper Wire Thefts from ElectricUtilities - October 2010 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability monitors changes, threats, and risks to the energy infrastructure in the United States. This report updates a previously published report on copper wire theft. The combined efforts of electric

Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) - 2006 Revised | Department of Energy 6 Revised "List of Covered ElectricUtilities" under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) - 2006 Revised Under Title I of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is required to publish a list identifying each electricutility. "List of Covered ElectricUtilities" under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978

Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) - 2008 | Department of Energy 8 "List of Covered ElectricUtilities" under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) - 2008 Under Title I of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is required to publish a list identifying each electricutility. "List of Covered ElectricUtilities" under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) (52.14 KB) More

Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) - 2009 | Department of Energy 9 "List of Covered ElectricUtilities" under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) - 2009 Under Title I, Sec. 102(c) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is required to publish a list identifying each electricutility "List of Covered ElectricUtilities" under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) (2.43 MB

This publication presents an annual summary of statistics at the national, Census division, State, electricutility, and plant levels regarding the quantity, quality, and cost of fossil fuels used to produce electricity. The purpose of this publication is to provide energy decision-makers with accurate and timely information that may be used in forming various perspectives on issues regarding electric power.

This document presents an annual summary of statistics at the national, Census division, State, electricutility, and plant levels regarding the quantity, quality, and cost of fossil fuels used to produce electricity. Purpose of this publication is to provide energy decision-makers with accurate, timely information that may be used in forming various perspectives on issues regarding electric power.

Recent advancements in hydrogen technologies and renewable energy applications show promise for economical near- to mid-term conversion to a hydrogen-based economy. As the use of hydrogen for the electricutility and transportation sectors of the U.S. economy unfolds, electric power utilities need to understand the potential benefits and impacts. This report provides a historical perspective of hydrogen, discusses the process of electrolysis for hydrogen production (especially from solar and wind technologies), and describes the opportunities for electric power utilities.

In April 1992, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released data on 1989 and 1990 electric-utility demand-site management (DMS) programs. These data represent a census of US utility DSM programs, with reports of utility expenditures, energy savings, and load reductions caused by these programs. In addition, EIA published utility estimates of the costs and effects of these programs from 1991 to 2000. These data provide the first comprehensive picture of what utilities are spending and accomplishing by utility, state, and region. This report presents, summarizes, and interprets the 1990 data and the utility forecasts of their DSM-program expenditures and impacts to the year 2000. Only utilities with annual sales greater than 120 GWh were required to report data on their DSM programs to EIA. Of the 1194 such utilities, 363 reported having a DSM program that year. These 363 electricutilities spent $1.2 billion on their DSM programs in 1990, up from $0.9 billion in 1989. Estimates of energy savings (17,100 GWh in 1990 and 14,800 GWh in 1989) and potential reductions in peak demand (24,400 MW in 1990 and about 19,400 MW in 1989) also showed substantial increases. Overall, utility DSM expenditures accounted for 0.7% of total US electric revenues, while the reductions in energy and demand accounted for 0.6% and 4.9% of their respective 1990 national totals. The investor-ownedutilities accounted for 70 to 90% of the totals for DSM costs, energy savings, and demand reductions. The public utilities reported larger percentage reductions in peak demand and energy smaller percentage DSM expenditures. These averages hide tremendous variations across utilities. Utility forecasts of DSM expenditures and effects show substantial growth in both absolute and relative terms.

This report presents comprehensive information on electric power industry demand-side management activities in the United States at the national, regional, and utility levels. Data is included for energy savings, peakload reductions, and costs.

The idea to do this research was suggested by the efforts of some consumer groups and others to seek passage of a law in the United States to exempt investor-ownedelectricutilities from federal income taxes. The goal of the consumer groups is to reduce the charges to utility customers (which is measured in this study by the amount of the operating revenues of the utilities) while not causing any harm to the utilities. The population of interest consisted of all investor-ownedelectricutilities included on a current Compustat utility tape. In the analysis of the data, the changes in cash flow, operating revenue, and net income were summarized by the 89 utilities as a total group and by the division of the utilities into smaller groups or combinations which used the same accounting methods during the test period. The results of this research suggest the following conclusions concerning the change to a situation in which electricutilities are not subject to federal income taxes: (1) as a group, the decrease in cash flow would be significant, (2) as a group, the decrease in operating revenue (charges to customers) would not be significant, (3) as a group, the increase in net income would be significant, and (4) in analyzing the effects of any financial adjustments or changes on electricutilities, the accounting policies used to the utilities are an important factor.

The basic concepts of public utility status and utility regulation intertwine the obligation to provide service to the public as reasonably demanded with rate regulation and shielding from competitive interference. While a common law service obligation was not part of the Federal Power Act, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has taken the position that service, once commenced, may not be terminated without its approval. This view of Commission authority may not be supported by the legislative history of the Federal Power Act or by judicial precedent. The requirement to serve apart from recognition of a right to serve may result in increased rates in the near term and insufficient capacity, or both, in the long run. A review by the Commission and the courts is examining ways to introduce competition and shift risks from ratepayers to shareholders.

This report offers perspectives on the future of the electricutility industry. These perspectives will be used in further research to assess the prospects for Integrated Resource Planning (IRP). The perspectives are developed first by examining economic, political and regulatory, societal, technological, and environmental trends that are (1) national and global in scope and (2) directly related to the electricutility industry. Major national and global trends include increasing global economic competition, increasing political and ethnic strife, rapidly changing technologies, and increasing worldwide concern about the environment. Major trends in the utility industry include increasing competition in generation; changing patterns of electricity demand; increasing use of information technology to control power systems; and increasing implementation of environmental controls. Ways in which the national and global trends may directly affect the utility industry are also explored. The trends are used to construct three global and national scenarios- ``business as usual,`` ``technotopia future,`` and ``fortress state`` -and three electricutility scenarios- ``frozen in headlights,`` ``megaelectric,`` and ``discomania.`` The scenarios are designed to be thought provoking descriptions of potential futures, not predictions of the future, although three key variables are identified that will have significant impacts on which future evolves-global climate change, utility technologies, and competition. While emphasis needs to be placed on understanding the electricutility scenarios, the interactions between the two sets of scenarios is also of interest.

This paper shows several constraints that an unregulated plant would encounter. Florida Power Corporation has built a plant that has the characteristics of an IPP operating in the future deregulated electricity market. This plant, the University of Florida Cogeneration Plant undergoes the same conditions experienced in an IPP selling energy to the electricutilities when its contractual electric customer was unable to take the energy. It is a model of the future deregulated IPP.

Kansai Electric Power Co. and Mitsubishi Electric Co. have been developing the electricutility dispersed use PAFC stack operated under the ambient pressure. The new cell design have been developed, so that the large scale cell (1 m{sup 2} size) was adopted for the stack. To confirm the performance and the stability of the 1 m{sup 2} scale cell design, the short stack study had been performed.

This paper briefly outlines some of the issues in the electric power industry restructuring. In addition, the impacts of these changes on the energy marketplace are discussed. Federal policy initiatives, state regulatory response, and utility management response are each described. Management skills are identified as the critical success factor for competition in the utility market.

The US ElectricUtility Demand-Side Management report presents comprehensive information on electric power industry demand-side management (DSM) activities in the US at the national, regional, and utility levels. The objective of the publication is to provide industry decision makers, government policy makers, analysts, and the general public with historical data that may be used in understanding DSM as it related to the US electric power industry. The first chapter, ``Profile: U.S. ElectricUtility Demand-Side Management,`` presents a general discussion of DSM, its history, current issues, and a review of key statistics for the year. Subsequent chapters present discussions and more detailed data on energy savings, peak load reductions and costs attributable to DSM. 9 figs., 24 tabs.

A predominant theme in the current electricutility industry literature is that competitive forces have emerged and may become more prominent. The wholesale bulk power market is alreadly competitive, as non-utility energy service providers already have had a significant impact on that market; this trend was accelerated by the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Although competition at the retail level is much less pervasive, electricutility customers increasingly have greater choice in selecting energy services. These choices may include, depending on the customer, the ability to self-generate, switch fuels, move to a new location, or rely more heavily on demand-side management as a means of controlling electric energy use. This paper explores the subject of how demand-side management (DSM) programs, which are often developed by a utility to satisfy resource requirements as a part of its least-cost planning process, can affect the utility`s ability to compete in the energy services marketplace. In this context, the term `DSM` is used in this paper to refer to those demand-side services and programs which provide resources to the utility`s system. Depending on one`s perspective, DSM programs (so defined) can be viewed either as an enhancement to the competitive position of a utility by enabling it to provide its customers with a broader menu of energy services, simultaneously satisfying the objectives of the utility as well as those of the customers, or as a detractor to a utility`s ability to compete. In the latter case, the concern is with respect to the potential for adverse rate impacts on customers who are not participants in DSM programs. The paper consists of an identification of the pros and cons of DSM as a competitive strategy, the tradeoff which can occur between the cost impacts and rate impacts of DSM, and an examination of alternative strategies for maximizing the utilization of DSM both as a resource and as a competitive strategy.

An assessment of the utilities' forecasts of future electricity supply is presented. An analysis of the demand forecast is contained in a separate document. California Energy Demand 1978 to 2000: A preliminary Assessment (August 1979). An evaluation of the feasibility and implications of supply plans, formulated by the State's electricutilities, to meet their forecasted demand is presented. The report is a critique of the supply plans; therefore, it establishes the foundation for the examining alternatives. Utility resource plans and underlying supply planning assumptions were submitted between March and June 1978 for evaluation, but updated resource plans of July 1979 were used as the basis for the assessment. Supply plans were evaluated from utilities (PG and E, SCE, SDG and E, LADWP, Sacramento Municipal Utility District); cities (Burbank, Anaheim, Glendale, Pasadena, Riverside); Northern California Power Agency; Modesto Irrigation District; Turlock Irrigation District; Imperial Irrigation District; and Department of Water Resources.

The author discusses the emerging competitive situation in the electric power industry as deregulation of electricutilities looms on the horizon. The paper supports this change, and the competition it will bring, but urges caution as changes are instituted, and the regulatory bodies decide how and how much to free, and at what rates. The reason for his urge for caution comes from historical experience of other industries, which were smaller and had less direct impact on every American.

1) Distribution Category UC-950 Cost and Quality of Fuels for ElectricUtility Plants 2001 March 2004 Energy Information Administration Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels U.S. Department of Energy Washington DC 20585 This report was prepared by the Energy Information Administration, the independent statistical and analytical agency within the Department of Energy. The information contained herein should not be construed as advocating or reflecting any policy position of the

In two particular respects (briefly investigated in this study from a lawyer`s perspective), electricutilities appear uniquely well-positioned to contribute to the National Information Infrastructure (NII). First of all, utilities have legal powers derived from their charters and operating authorities, confirmed in their rights-of-way, to carry out activities and functions necessary for delivering electric service. These activities and functions include building telecommunications facilities and undertaking information services that have become essential to managing electricity demand and supply. The economic value of the efficiencies made possible by telecommunications and information could be substantial. How great remains to be established, but by many estimates electricutility applications could fund a significant share of the capital costs of building the NII. Though utilities` legal powers to pursue such efficiencies through telecommunications and information appear beyond dispute, it is likely that the effort to do so will produce substantial excess capacity. Who will benefit from this excess capacity is a potentially contentious political question that demands early resolution. Will this windfall go to the utility, the customer, or no one (because of political paralysis), or will there be some equitable and practical split? A second aspect of inquiry here points to another contemporary issue of very great societal importance that could very well become the platform on which the first question can be resolved fortuitously-how to achieve universal telecommunications service. In the effort to fashion the NII that will now continue, ways and means to maximize the unique potential contribution of electricutilities to meeting important social and economic needs--in particular, universal service--merit priority attention.

The distributed utility concept provides an alternate approach to guide electricutility expansion. The fundamental idea within the distributed utility concept is that particular local load increases can be satisfied at least cost by avoiding or delaying the more traditional investments in central generation capacity, bulk transmission expansion, and local transmission and distribution upgrades. Instead of these investments, the distributed utility concept suggests that investments in local generation, local storage, and local demand-side management technologies can be designed to satisfy increasing local demand at lower total cost. Critical to installation of distributed assets is knowledge of a utility system`s area- and time-specific costs. This review introduces the distributed utility concept, describes an application of ATS costs to investment planning, discusses the various motivations for further study of the concept, and reviews relevant literature. Future research directions are discussed.

This guide deals primarily with the economics of electricutilities, although certain legal and organizational aspects of utilities are discussed. Each of the seven chapters addresses a particular facet of public-utility ratemaking. Chapter One contains a discussion of the evolution of the public-utility concept, as well as the legal and economic justification for public utilities. The second chapter sets forth an analytical economic model which provides the basis for the next four chapters. These chapters contain a detailed examination of total operating costs, the rate base, the rate of return, and the rate structure. The final chapter discusses a number of current issues regarding electricutilities, mainly factors related to fuel-adjustment costs, advertising, taxes, construction work in progress, and lifeline rates. Some of the examples used in the Guide are from particular states, such as Illinois and California. These examples are used to illustrate specific points. Consumers in other states can generalize them to their states and not change the meaning or significance of the points. 27 references, 8 tables.

Electricutility distribution system impacts associated with the integration of renewable energy sources such as photovoltaics (PV) and wind turbines (WT) are considered in this project. The impacts are expected to vary from site to site according to the following characteristics: (1) The local solar insolation and/or wind characteristics; (2) renewable energy source penetration level; (3) whether battery or other energy storage systems are applied; and (4) local utility distribution design standards and planning practices. Small, distributed renewable energy sources are connected to the utility distribution system like other, similar kW- and MW-scale equipment and loads. Residential applications are expected to be connected to single-phase 120/240-V secondaries. Larger kw-scale applications may be connected to three-phase secondaries, and larger hundred-kW and MW-scale applications, such as MW-scale windfarms or PV plants, may be connected to electricutility primary systems via customer-owned primary and secondary collection systems. Small, distributed renewable energy sources installed on utility distribution systems will also produce nonsite-specific utility generation system benefits such as energy and capacity displacement benefits, in addition to the local site-specific distribution system benefits. Although generation system benefits are not site-specific, they are utility-specific, and they vary significantly among utilities in different regions. In addition, transmission system benefits, environmental benefits and other benefits may apply. These benefits also vary significantly among utilities and regions. Seven utility case studies considering PV, WT, and battery storage were conducted to identify a range of potential renewable energy source distribution system applications.

This report examines the capital cost associated with various energy storage systems that have been installed for electricutility application. The storage systems considered in this study are Battery Energy Storage (BES), Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) and Flywheel Energy Storage (FES). The report also projects the cost reductions that may be anticipated as these technologies come down the learning curve. This data will serve as a base-line for comparing the cost-effectiveness of hydrogen energy storage (HES) systems in the electricutility sector. Since pumped hydro or compressed air energy storage (CAES) is not particularly suitable for distributed storage, they are not considered in this report. There are no comparable HES systems in existence in the electricutility sector. However, there are numerous studies that have assessed the current and projected cost of hydrogen energy storage system. This report uses such data to compare the cost of HES systems with that of other storage systems in order to draw some conclusions as to the applications and the cost-effectiveness of hydrogen as a electricity storage alternative.

The number, scope, effects, and costs of electric-utility demand-site management programs are growing rapidly in the United States. Utilities, their regulators, and energy policy makers need reliable information on the costs of, participation in, and energy and load effects of these programs to make informed decisions. In particular, information is needed on the ability of these programs to cost-effectively provide energy and capacity resources that are alternatives to power plants. This handbook addresses the need for additional and better information in two ways. First, it discusses the key concepts associated with DSM-program types, participation, energy and load effects, and costs. Second, the handbook offers definitions and a sample reporting form for utility DSM programs. The primary purpose in developing these definitions and this form is to encourage consistency in the collection and reporting of data on DSM programs. To ensure that the discussions, reporting formats, and definitions will be useful and used, development of this handbook was managed by a committee, with membership from electricutilities, state regulatory commissions, and the US Department of Energy. Also, this data-collection form was pretested by seven people from six utilities, who completed the form for nine DSM programs.

In contemplating a regulatory approach, the challenge for regulators is to develop a model that provides incentives for utilities to engage in socially desirable behavior. In this primer, we provide guidance on this process by discussing (1) various models of economic regulation, (2) problems implementing these models, and (3) the types of incentives that various models of regulation provide electricutilities. We address five regulatory models in depth. They include cost-of-service regulation in which prudently incurred costs are reflected dollar-for-dollar in rates and four performance-based models: (1) price-cap regulation, in which ceilings are placed on the average price that a utility can charge its customers; (2) revenue-cap regulation, in which a ceiling is placed on revenues; (3) rate-of-return bandwidth regulation, in which a utility`s rates are adjusted if earnings fall outside a {open_quotes}band{close_quotes} around equity returns; and (4) targeted incentives, in which a utility is given incentives to improve specific components of its operations. The primary difference between cost-of-service and performance-based approaches is the latter sever the tie between costs and prices. A sixth, {open_quotes}mixed approach{close_quotes} combines two or more of the five basic ones. In the recent past, a common mixed approach has been to combine targeted incentives with cost-of-service regulation. A common example is utilities that are subject to cost-of-service regulation are given added incentives to increase the efficiency of troubled electric-generating units.

This report consists of an appendix to provide a documentation and help capability for an analyst using the developed expert system of electricutility operations running in CLIPS. This capability is provided through a separate package running under the WINDOWS Operating System and keyed to provide displays of text, graphics and mixed text and graphics that explain and elaborate on the specific decisions being made within the knowledge based expert system.

A load management system is proposed in which the electricutility customer controls his on-site power demand to coincide with the lowest possible cost of power generation. Called Homeostatic Control, this method is founded on feedback between the customer and the utility and on customer independence. The utility has no control beyond the customer's meter. Computers located at the customer's site are continuously fed data on weather conditions, utility generating costs, and demand requirements for space conditioning, lighting, and appliances. The customer then directs the computer to schedule and control the power allotted for these functions. On-site generation by the customer can be incorporated in the system. It is argued that homeostatic control is technically feasible, that the level of control equipment sophistication can be adapted to the benefits received by the customer, that such a system would encourage the use of customer-site energy storage and energy conservation equipment, and that it represents a realistic method for allowing the customer to decide how he will use electric power during an era of increasing costs for power generation. (LCL)

In evaluating mergers, FERC should adopt the approach of the federal antitrust agencies to prevent firms from gaining and exercising market power. Doing so will require changes in everything from how FERC defines product and geographic markets, and how market concentration, entry conditions and cost saving are evaluated, to how discovery is conducted - in short, to virtually every aspect of how FERC reaches a merger decision. Reliance on competition to benefit consumers carries with it the necessity to preserve competition that is threatened by mergers or other structural changes. Faced with numerous mergers of large and medium-size electricutilities and the expectation of more to come, in January 1996 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requested comments on how it should evaluate mergers. This paper addresses that need. Section I explains how FERC and the federal antitrust agencies have responded to the competitive issues raised by utility mergers during the past decade. Section II introduces the analytical approach used by the antitrust agencies to evaluate mergers. Section III highlights features of the electric power industry that make analysis of market power unusually complex. Section IV evaluates FERC`s past reliance on comparable open access transmission as a sufficient remedy for competitive concerns relating to the availability, reliability and pricing of transmission service. Section V suggests changes to FERC`s merger policy that would make it consistent with antitrust principles and FERC`s public interest responsibilities. The final section draws conclusions.

I hope this brief description of the US electricutility industry has been interesting and informative. No doubt many characteristics, concerns, and research efforts mirror those of the electricutility industry in South Korea. It is hoped that through workshops such as this that electricutilities, manufacturers and consultants may learn from each other for the mutual benefit of all.

Members of the energy and environmental communities believe that parallels exist between electricalutility least-cost planning and transportation planning. In particular, the Washington State Energy Strategy Committee believes that an integrated and comprehensive transportation planning process should be developed to fairly evaluate the costs of both demand-side and supply-side transportation options, establish competition between different travel modes, and select the mix of options designed to meet system goals at the lowest cost to society. Comparisons between travel modes are also required under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). ISTEA calls for the development of procedures to compare demand management against infrastructure investment solutions and requires the consideration of efficiency, socioeconomic and environmental factors in the evaluation process. Several of the techniques and approaches used in energy least-cost planning and utility peak demand management can be incorporated into a least-cost transportation planning methodology. The concepts of avoided plants, expressing avoidable costs in levelized nominal dollars to compare projects with different on-line dates and service lives, the supply curve, and the resource stack can be directly adapted from the energy sector.

With the coming changes in the electrical industry, there is a broad need to understand the impacts of restructuring on customers, existing utilities, and other stakeholders. Retail wheeling; performance-based regulation; unbundling of generation, transmission, and distribution; and the impact of stranded commitments are all key issues in the discussions of the future of the industry. To quantify these issues, financial and production cost models are required. The authors have created a smaller and faster finance and operations model call the Oak Ridge Financial Model (ORFIN) to help analyze the ramifications of the issues identified above. It combines detailed pricing and financial analysis with an economic dispatch model over a multi-year period. Several types of ratemaking are modeled, as well as the wholesale market and retail wheeling. Multiple plants and purchased power contracts are modeled for economic dispatch, and separate financial accounts are kept for each. Transmission, distribution, and other functions are also broken out. Regulatory assets such as deferred tax credits and demand-side management (DSM) programs are also included in the income statement and balance sheet. This report describes some of the key features of the model. Examples of the financial reports are shown, with a description of their formulation. Some of the ways these results can be used in analyzing various issues are provided.

The report and accompanying table addresses the implementation of central wind power forecasting by electricutilities and regional transmission organizations in North America. The first part of the table focuses on electricutilities and regional transmission organizations that have central wind power forecasting in place; the second part focuses on electricutilities and regional transmission organizations that plan to adopt central wind power forecasting in 2010. This is an update of the December 2009 report, NREL/SR-550-46763.

Economics of Photovoltaic Systems | Department of Energy The Impacts of Commercial ElectricUtility Rate Structure Elements on the Economics of Photovoltaic Systems The Impacts of Commercial ElectricUtility Rate Structure Elements on the Economics of Photovoltaic Systems This analysis uses simulated building data, simulated solar photovoltaic (PV) data, and actual electricutility tariff data from 25 cities to better understand the impacts of different commercial rate structures on the

As the electric industry goes through a transformation to a more market-driven model, traditional grounds for utility energy efficiency have come under fire, undermining the existing mechanisms to fund and deliver such services. The challenge, then, is to understand why the electric industry should sustain investments in helping low-income Americans use electricity efficiently, how such investments should be made, and how these policies can become part of the new electric industry structure. This report analyzes the opportunities and barriers to leveraging electricutility energy efficiency assistance to low-income customers during the transition of the electric industry to greater competition.

Today's utility planners have a different market and economic context than their predecessors, including planning for the growth of renewable energy. Through interviews and a questionnaire, the authors gathered information on utility supply planning and how solar is represented. Utilities were asked to provide their resource planning process details, key assumptions (e.g. whether DG is represented as supply or negative load), modeling methodology (e.g. type of risk analytics and candidate portfolio development), capacity expansion and production simulation model software, and solar project representation (project size, capacity value and integration cost adder). This presentation aims to begin the exchange of information between utilities, regulators and other stakeholders by capturing utility-provided information about: 1) how various utilities approach long-range resource planning; 2) methods and tools utilities use to conduct resource planning; and, 3) how solar technologies are considered in the resource planning process.

Electricity: 30 Years of Electricity: 30 Years of Industry Change Industry Change David K. Owens Executive Vice President Edison Electric Institute 30 Years of Energy Information and Analysis April 7, 2008 EIA Key to Policy Development and EIA Key to Policy Development and Advocacy Activities Advocacy Activities EIA Has Kept Pace With an Evolving EIA Has Kept Pace With an Evolving Energy Industry Energy Industry n EIA clearly provides more with less budgetary support l 1979: $347 million l 2007:

Data regarding electricity sales (megawatthours) and associated revenue (thousand dollars) are submitted to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) by selected electricutilities on the Form EIA-826, `Monthly ElectricUtility Sales and Revenue Report with State Distributions.` The Form EIA-826 survey is a statistical sample drawn from the respondents to the Form EIA-861, `Annual ElectricUtility Report.` The monthly survey consists of the utilities with the largest sales within each state and a stratified random sample of the remaining utilities. The Form EIA-826 is designed to facilitate the estimation of electricity sales and associated revenue at the National Census Division, and state level, by class of consumer. These estimates in turn, can be used to calculate average revenue per milowatthour and estimates of sales, revenue, and average revenue per kilowatthour coefficients of variation.

Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico, conducts the Utility Battery Storage Systems Program, which is sponsored by the US Department of Energy`s Office of Energy Management. As a part of this program, four utility-specific systems studies were conducted to identify potential battery energy storage applications within each utility network and estimate the related benefits. This report contains the results of these systems studies.

Caterpillar's Technology & Solutions Division conceived, designed, built and tested an electric turbocompound system for an on-highway heavy-duty truck engine. The heart of the system is a unique turbochargerr with an electric motor/generator mounted on the shaft between turbine and compressor wheels. When the power produced by the turbocharger turbine exceeds the power of the compressor, the excess power is converted to electrical power by the generator on the turbo shaft; that power is then used to help turn the crankshaft via an electric motor mounted in the engine flywheel housing. The net result is an improvement in engine fuel economy. The electric turbocompound system provides added control flexibility because it is capable of varying the amount of power extracted from the exhaust gases, thus allowing for control of engine boost. The system configuration and design, turbocharger features, control system development, and test results are presented.

REGIONAL POLICIES THAT PROMOTE ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAMS CARRIED OUT BY ELECTRIC AND GAS UTILITIES A REPORT TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS PURSUANT TO SECTION 139 OF THE ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005 MARCH 2007 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Sec. 139. Energy Efficient Electric and Natural Gas Utilities Study. a) IN GENERAL.-Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in consultation with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commis- sioners and the National

Today's utility planners have a different market and economic context than their predecessors, including planning for the growth of renewable energy. State and federal support policies, solar photovoltaic (PV) price declines, and the introduction of new business models for solar PV 'ownership' are leading to increasing interest in solar technologies (especially PV); however, solar introduces myriad new variables into the utility resource planning decision. Most, but not all, utility planners have less experience analyzing solar than conventional generation as part of capacity planning, portfolio evaluation, and resource procurement decisions. To begin to build this knowledge, utility staff expressed interest in one effort: utility exchanges regarding data, methods, challenges, and solutions for incorporating solar in the planning process. Through interviews and a questionnaire, this report aims to begin this exchange of information and capture utility-provided information about: 1) how various utilities approach long-range resource planning; 2) methods and tools utilities use to conduct resource planning; and, 3) how solar technologies are considered in the resource planning process.

This cooperative program between the DOE Office of Heavy Vehicle Technology and Caterpillar, Inc. is aimed at demonstrating electric turbocompound technology on a Class 8 truck engine. This is a lab demonstration program, with no provision for on-truck testing of the system. The goal is to demonstrate the level of fuel efficiency improvement attainable with the electric turbocompound system. Also, electric turbocompounding adds an additional level of control to the air supply which could be a component in an emissions control strategy.

Since the 1960s, the U.S. electric power system has experienced a major blackout about once every 10 years. Each has been a vivid reminder of the importance society places on the continuous availability of electricity and has led to calls for changes to enhance reliability. At the root of these calls are judgments about what reliability is worth and how much should be paid to ensure it. In principle, comprehensive information on the actual reliability of the electric power system and on how proposed changes would affect reliability ought to help inform these judgments. Yet, comprehensive, national-scale information on the reliability of the U.S. electric power system is lacking. This report helps to address this information gap by assessing trends in U.S. electricity reliability based on information reported by electricutilities on power interruptions experienced by their customers. Our research augments prior investigations, which focused only on power interruptions originating in the bulk power system, by considering interruptions originating both from the bulk power system and from within local distribution systems. Our research also accounts for differences among utility reliability reporting practices by employing statistical techniques that remove the influence of these differences on the trends that we identify. The research analyzes up to 10 years of electricity reliability information collected from 155 U.S. electricutilities, which together account for roughly 50% of total U.S. electricity sales. The questions analyzed include: 1. Are there trends in reported electricity reliability over time? 2. How are trends in reported electricity reliability affected by the installation or upgrade of an automated outage management system? 3. How are trends in reported electricity reliability affected by the use of IEEE Standard 1366-2003?

Unbundling of retail electric services will accelerate competitive forces in a way that could radically change the future course of the electric power industry. Although simple in concept, unbundling raises a broad range of complex issues, many of which are fundamental to today`s concepts of regulation and utility management. This article addresses four questions: (1) What is retail unbundling? (2) What role might it play in the future electric power industry? (3) What lessons can be learned from retail unbundling in other regulated industries, specifically the natural gas industry? (4) What are the major issues associated with retail unbundling for electricutilities and state regulators?

The objective of this research was to obtain information about utility conservation marketing techniques from companies actively engaged in performing residential conservation services. Many utilities currently are offering comprehensive services (audits, listing of contractors and lenders, post-installation inspection, advertising, and performing consumer research). Activities are reported for the following utilities: Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation; Tampa Electric Company; Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Division; Northern States Power-Wisconsin; Public Service Company of Colorado; Arizona Public Service Company; Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Sacramento Municipal Utility District; and Pacific Power and Light Company.

7 Tables May 1998 Energy Information Administration Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels U.S. Department of Energy Washington DC 20585 This report was prepared by the Energy Information Administration, the independent statistical and analytical agency within the Department of Energy. The information contained herein should not be construed as advocating or reflecting any policy position of the Department of Energy or any other organization. Energy Information Administration/Cost

Data regarding electricity sales (megawatthours) and associated revenue (thousand dollars) are submitted to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) by selected electricutilities on the Form EIA-826, `Monthly ElectricUtility Sales and Revenue Report with State Distributions.` The monthly survey consists of the utilities with the largest sales within each state and a stratified random sample of the remaining utilities. The Form EIA-826 is designed to facilitate the estimation of electricity sales and associated revenue at the National Census Division, and state level, by class of consumer. These estimates in turn, can be used to calculate average revenue per milowatthour and estimates of sales, revenue, and average revenue per kilowatthour coefficients of variation.

SERICPAC is a computer program developed to calculate average avoided cost rates for decentralized power producers and cogenerators that sell electricity to electricutilities. SERICPAC works in tandem with SERICOST, a program to calculate avoided costs, and determines the appropriate rates for buying and selling of electricity from electricutilities to qualifying facilities (QF) as stipulated under Section 210 of PURA. SERICPAC contains simulation models for eight technologies including wind, hydro, biogas, and cogeneration. The simulations are converted in a diversified utility production which can be either gross production or net production, which accounts for an internal electricity usage by the QF. The program allows for adjustments to the production to be made for scheduled and forced outages. The final output of the model is a technology-specific average annual rate. The report contains a description of the technologies and the simulations as well as complete user's guide to SERICPAC.

The Acid Rain Program is divided into two time periods; Phase I, from 1995 through 1999, and Phase II, starting in 2000. Phase I mostly affects power plants that are the largest sources of SO2 and NOx . Phase II affects virtually all electric power producers, including utilities and nonutilities. This report is a study of the effects of compliance with Phase I regulations on the costs and operations of electricutilities, but does not address any Phase II impacts.

Metrics for reliability, such as the frequency and duration of power interruptions, have been reported by electricutilities for many years. This study examines current utility practices for collecting and reporting electricity reliability information and discusses challenges that arise in assessing reliability because of differences among these practices. The study is based on reliability information for year 2006 reported by 123 utilities in 37 states representing over 60percent of total U.S. electricity sales. We quantify the effects that inconsistencies among current utility reporting practices have on comparisons of System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) and System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) reported by utilities. We recommend immediate adoption of IEEE Std. 1366-2003 as a consistent method for measuring and reporting reliability statistics.

This report updates the 1980 Energy Information Administration (EIA) publication entitled Trends in the Capacity Utilization and Fuel Consumption of ElectricUtility Powerplants, 1970-1978, DOE/EIA-184/32. The analysis covers the period from 1970 through 1981, and examines trends during the period prior to the 1973 Arab oil embargo (1970-1973), after the embargo (1974-1977), and during the immediate past (1978-1981). The report also addresses other factors affecting the electricutility industry since the oil embargo: the reduction in foreign oil supplies as a result of the 1979 Iranian crisis, the 1977 drought in the western United States, the 1978 coal strike by the United Mine Workers Union, and the shutdown of nuclear plants in response to the accident at Three Mile Island. Annual data on electricutility generating capacity, net generation, and fuel consumption are provided to identify changes in patterns of power plant capacity utilization and dispatching.

In 1991, US electricutilities spent almost $1.8 billion on demand-side management (DSM) programs. These programs cut peak demands 5% and reduced electricity sales 1% that year. Utility projections suggest that these reductions will increase to 9% and 3%, respectively, by the year 2001. However, utility DSM efforts vary enormously across the country, concentrated in a few states along the east and west coasts and the upper midwest. To some extent, this concentration is a function of regulatory reforms that remove disincentives to utility shareholders for investments in DSM programs. A key component of these reforms is recovery of the net lost revenues caused by utility DSM programs. These lost revenues occur between rate cases when a utility encourages its customers to improve energy efficiency and cut demand. The reduction in sales means that the utility has less revenue to cover its fixed costs. This report describes a new method, statistical recoupling (SR), that addresses this net-lost-revenue problem. Like other decoupling approaches, SR breaks the link between electric-utility revenues and sales. Unlike other approaches, SR minimizes changes from traditional regulation. In particular, the risks of revenue swings associated with year-to-year changes in weather and the economy remain with the utility under SR. Statistical recoupling uses statistical models, based on historical data, that explain retail electricity sales as functions of the number of utility customers, winter and summer weather, the condition of the local economy, electricity price, and perhaps a few other key variables. These models, along with the actual values of the explanatory variables, are then used to estimate ``allowed`` electricity sales and revenues in future years.

The electricutility industry is facing a new spectrum of antitrust issues reflecting its transformation from an industry that is fully regulated to one that is partly regulated, partly competitive. There are two principal antitrust issues: claims of price squeezes and claims by municipal and cooperative utilities that their traditional utility supplier is refusing to wheel power from other suppliers. This article discusses the following related topics: new antitrust issues; regional transmission groups and other joint ventures; mergers.

This report (1) reviews economic theory of marginal-cost pricing; and (2) examines its applications, going back to the 1960s and before, by electricutilities in France and Great Britain. An ideal pricing system for an economy is first reviewed to clarify fairly complicated ideas of economic theory for noneconomists - the industry specialist and state regulator. The concept of ideal marginal-cost pricing as applied to electricity is then developed. Next, an overview is provided of practical issues that need to be faced when the theory is implemented. Finally, the study turns to examine how the theory has actually been interpreted and applied to electricity rate design by the French and the British. Their methods of transforming theory into practice are reviewed, illustrative tariffs that incorporate their interpretation are provided.

0) Distribution Category UC-950 Cost and Quality of Fuels for ElectricUtility Plants 2000 Tables August 2001 Energy Information Administration Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels U.S. Department of Energy Washington DC 20585 This report was prepared by the Energy Information Administration, the independent statistical and analytical agency within the Department of Energy. The information contained herein should not be construed as advocating or reflecting any policy position

In 1980 US electricutilities reported purchasng 594 million tons of coal, 408.5 million barrels of oil and 3568.7 billion ft/sup 3/ of gas. As compared with 1979 purchases, coal rose 6.7%, oil decreased 20.9%, and gas increased for the fourth year in a row. This volume presents tabulated and graphic data on the cost and quality of fossil fuel receipts to US electricutilities plants with a combined capacity of 25 MW or greater. Information is included on fuel origin and destination, fuel types, and sulfur content, plant types, capacity, and flue gas desulfurization method used, and fuel costs. (LCL)

The potential and existing problems concerning the interface between US electricutilities and cogenerators are considered by region. Also considered are regulatory barriers, rates and contracts, economic feasibility, and impact on system planning. Finally, the impact of the National Energy Act on the marketability potential of cogeneration is reviewed. The three appendixes summarize the utility meetings on cogeneration held in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

This primer is offered as an introduction to utility restructuring to better prepare readers for ongoing changes in public utilities and associated energy markets. It is written for use by individuals with responsibility for the management of facilities that use energy, including energy managers, procurement staff, and managers with responsibility for facility operations and budgets. The primer was prepared by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory under sponsorship from the U.S. Department of Energy?s Federal Energy Management Program. The impetus for this primer originally came from the Government Services Administration who supported its initial development.

Many regulators, utilities, customer groups, and other stakeholders are reevaluating existing regulatory models and the roles and financial implications for electricutilities in the context of today’s environment of increasing distributed energy resource (DER) penetrations, forecasts of significant T&D investment, and relatively flat or negative utility sales growth. When this is coupled with predictions about fewer grid-connected customers (i.e., customer defection), there is growing concern about the potential for serious negative impacts on the regulated utility business model. Among states engaged in these issues, the range of topics under consideration is broad. Most of these states are considering whether approaches that have been applied historically to mitigate the impacts of previous “disruptions” to the regulated utility business model (e.g., energy efficiency) as well as to align utility financial interests with increased adoption of such “disruptive technologies” (e.g., shareholder incentive mechanisms, lost revenue mechanisms) are appropriate and effective in the present context. A handful of states are presently considering more fundamental changes to regulatory models and the role of regulated utilities in the ownership, management, and operation of electric delivery systems (e.g., New York “Reforming the Energy Vision” proceeding).

Opponents of decoupling worry that customers will experience frequent and significant rate increases as a result of its adoption, but a review of 28 natural gas and 17 electricutilities suggests that decoupling adjustments are both refunds to customers as well as charges and tend to be small. (author)

This paper lays out a set of economic criteria to guide the development of electricity conservation programs for industrial customers of the Costa Rican utilities. It puts the problem of utility and other public policy formulation in the industrial conservation field into the context of ongoing economic and trade liberalization in Costa Rica, as well as the financial and political pressures with which the country`s utilities must contend. The need to bolster utility financial performance and the perennial political difficulty of adjusting power rates for inflation and devaluation, not to mention maintaining efficient real levels, puts a premium on controlling the costs of utility conservation programs and increasing the degree of cost recovery over time. Industrial conservation programs in Costa Rica must adopt a certain degree of activation to help overcome serious market failures and imperfections while at the same time avoiding significant distortion of the price signals guiding the ongoing industrial rationalization process and the reactivation of growth.

This conference is one of several activities initiated by FERC, DOE and NARUC to improve the dialogue between Federal and State regulators and policymakers. I am pleased to be here to participate in this conference and to address, with you, electricity issues of truly national significance. I would like to commend Ashley Brown and the NARUC Electricity Committee for its foresight in devising a conference on these issues at this critical juncture in the regulation of the electricutility industry. I also would like to commend Chairman Allday and the FERC for their efforts to improve communication between Federal and State electricity regulators; both through FERC`s Public Conference on Electricity Issues that was held last June, and through the FERC/NARUC workshops that are scheduled to follow this conference. These collaborative efforts are important and necessary steps in addressing successfully the many issues facing the electricutility industry those who regulate it, and those who depend upon it - in other words, about everyone.

This report officially releases the compilation of regional 1989 retail customer sector sales data by the Bonneville Power Administration. This report is intended to enable detailed examination of annual regional electricity consumption. It gives statistics covering the time period 1970--1989, and also provides observations based on statistics covering the 1983--1989 time period. The electricity use report is the only information source that provides data obtained from each utility in the region based on the amount of electricity they sell to consumers annually. Data is provided on each retail customer sector: residential, commercial, industrial, direct-service industrial, and irrigation. The data specifically supports forecasting activities, rate development, conservation and market assessments, and conservation and market program development and delivery. All of these activities require a detailed look at electricity use. 25 figs., 34 tabs.

The term ``transition costs`` describes the potential revenue shortfall (or welfare loss) a utility (or other actor) may experience through government-initiated deregulation of electricity generation. The potential for transition costs arises whenever a regulated industry is subject to competitive market forces as a result of explicit government action. Federal and state proposals to deregulate electricity generation sparked a national debate on transition costs in the electric-utility industry. Industry-wide transition cost estimates range from about $20 billion to $500 billion. Such disparate estimates raise important questions on estimation methods for decision makers. This report examines different approaches to estimating transition costs. The study has three objectives. First, we discuss the concept of transition cost. Second, we identify the major cost categories included in transition cost estimates and summarize the current debate on which specific costs are appropriately included in these estimates. Finally, we identify general and specific estimation approaches and assess their strengths and weaknesses. We relied primarily on the evidentiary records established at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission to identify major cost categories and specific estimation approaches. We also contacted regulatory commission staffs in ten states to ascertain estimation activities in each of these states. We refined a classification framework to describe and assess general estimation options. We subsequently developed and applied criteria to describe and assess specific estimation approaches proposed by federal regulators, state regulators, utilities, independent power companies, and consultants.

of Energy Group Industry Commitment Federal Utility Partnership Working Group Industry Commitment Investor-ownedelectricutility industry members of the Edison Electric Institute pledge to assist Federal agencies in achieving energy-saving goals. These goals are set in the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and subsequent executive orders. Federal agencies can contact Federal Utility Partnership Working Group utility partners for more information on assistance. ElectricUtility Industry Pledge

Data regarding electricity sales (megawatthours) and associated revenue (thousand dollars) are submitted to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) by selected electricutilities on the Form EIA-826, Monthly ElectricUtility Sales and Revenue Report with State Distributions. The Form EIA-826 survey is a statistical sample drawn from the respondents to the Form EIA-861, Annual ElectricUtility Report. The monthly survey consists of the utilities with the largest sales within each state and a stratified random sample of the remaining utilities. The form EIA-826 is designed to facilitate the estimation of electricity sales and associated revenue at the National Census Division, and state level, by class of consumer. These estimates in turn, can be used to calculate average revenue per milowatthour and estimates of sales, revenue, and average revenue per kilowatthour coefficients of variation.

Data regarding electricity sales (megawatthours) and associated revenue (thousand dollars) are submitted to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) by selected electricutilities on the Form EIA-826, Monthly ElectricUtility Sales and Revenue Report with State Distributions. The Form EIA-826 survey is a statistical sample drawn from the respondents to the Form EIA-861, Annual ElectricUtility Report. The monthly survey consists of the utilities with the largest sales within each state and a stratified random sample of the remaining utilities. The form EIA-826 is designed to facilitate the estimation of electricity sales and associated revenue at the National Census Division, and state level, by class of consumer. These estimates in turn, can be used to calculate average revenue per milowatthour and estimates of sales, revenue, and average revenue per kilowatthour coefficients of variation.

This technical memorandum estimates the effects of alternative contractual commitments that may be initiated by the Western Area Power Administration`s Salt Lake City Area Office. It also studies hydropower operational restrictions at the Salt Lake City Area Integrated Projects in combination with these alternatives. Power marketing and hydropower operational effects are estimated in support of Western`s Electric Power Marketing Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Electricity production and capacity expansion for utility systems that will be directly affected by alternatives specified in the EIS are simulated. Cost estimates are presented by utility type and for various activities such as capacity expansion, generation, long-term firm purchases and sales, fixed operation and maintenance expenses, and spot market activities. Operational changes at hydropower facilities are also investigated.

The advancement of coal-based power generation technology is of primary interest to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The interests are well-founded due to increasing costs for premium fuels and, more importantly, the establishment of energy independence to promote national security. One of DOE's current goals is to promote the development of coal-fired technology for the electricutility industry. This paper is concerned with the economic comparison of two alternative technologies: the coal gasification-combined cycle (GCC) and the coal-fired magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)-combined cycle. The revenue requirement analysis was used for the economic evaluation of engineering alternatives in the electricutility industry. The results were compared based on year-by-year revenue requirement analysis. A computer program was written in Fortran to perform the calculations.

Part 1 of the ElectricUtility Engineer`s Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) Manual emphasizes the chemical and physical processes that form the basis for design and operation of lime- and limestone-based FGD systems applied to coal- or oil-fired steam electric generating stations. The objectives of Part 1 are: to provide a description of the chemical and physical design basis for lime- and limestone-based wet FGD systems; to identify and discuss the various process design parameters and process options that must be considered in developing a specification for a new FGD system; and to provide utility engineers with process knowledge useful for operating and optimizing a lime- or limestone-based wet FGD system.

New econometric methodology for modeling and estimating technical and allocative efficiency in production is proposed and applied. Translog cost frontier and share equations are presented in a panel data context, with the structure of the error terms representing noise and inefficiency. The use of panel data with this multivariate error components approach facilitates the separation of eficiency into its technical and allocative components, as well as the separation of noise from inefficiency. The model used is logically consistent in that the distributional assumptions concerning the disturbance vectors take into account the relationships among the disturbance terms in the cost and share equations. This method of efficiency measurement is applied to the electricutilities industry to obtain individual firm estimates of technical and allocative efficiency. The data consist of yearly cost, output, and input price information on 38 electricutility firms over a period of 18 years. Rate-of-return regulation in the electricutilities industry requires estimation of a regulated cost frontier and the associated share equations. Estimates of technical and allocative efficiency are obtained for each firm in every year. Comparisons are made with previous efficiency measurement studies. The measures of efficiency are analyzed in light of rate-of-return regulation.

This report officially releases the compilation of regional 1990 retail customer sector sales data by the Bonneville Power Administration. The report is intended to enable detailed examination of annual regional electricity consumption. It also provides observations based on statistics covering the 1983--1990 time period, and gives statistics covering the time period 1970--1990. The electricity use report is the only information source that provides data obtained from each utility in the region based on the amount of electricity they sell annually to four sectors. Data is provided on each retail customer sector and also on the customers Bonneville serves directly: residential, commercial, industrial, direct-service industrial, and irrigation. 21 figs., 40 tabs.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requested assistance in identifying methodological alternatives for quantifying the benefits of renewable electricity. The context is the CPUC's analysis of a 33% renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in California--one element of California's Climate Change Scoping Plan. The information would be used to support development of an analytic plan to augment the cost analysis of this RPS (which recently was completed). NREL has responded to this request by developing a high-level survey of renewable electricity effects, quantification alternatives, and considerations for selection of analytic methods. This report addresses economic effects and health and environmental effects, and provides an overview of related analytic tools. Economic effects include jobs, earnings, gross state product, and electricity rate and fuel price hedging. Health and environmental effects include air quality and related public-health effects, solid and hazardous wastes, and effects on water resources.

This Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Manufacturing Development Facility (MDF) technical collaboration project was conducted in two phases as a CRADA with Local Motors Inc. Phase 1 was previously reported as Advanced Manufacturing of Complex Cyber Mechanical Devices through Community Engagement and Micro-manufacturing and demonstrated the integration of components onto a prototype body part for a vehicle. Phase 2 was reported as Utility of Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) for the Rapid Manufacture of Customized Electric Vehicles and demonstrated the high profile live printing of an all-electric vehicle using ONRL s Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) technology. This demonstration generated considerable national attention and successfully demonstrated the capabilities of the BAAM system as developed by ORNL and Cincinnati, Inc. and the feasibility of additive manufacturing of a full scale electric vehicle as envisioned by the CRADA partner Local Motors, Inc.

Deregulation of the electricutility industry, new state and federal programs, and technology developments are making distributed resources (DR) an increasingly utilized option to provide capacity for growing or heavily loaded electric power systems. Optimal DR placement near loads provides benefits not attainable from bulk generation system additions. These include reduced loading of the T and D system, reduced losses, voltage support, and T and D equipment upgrade deferments. The purpose of this document is to review existing interconnection practices and present interconnection guidelines are relevant to the protection, control, and data acquisition requirements for the interconnection of distributed resources to the utility system. This is to include protection performance requirements, data collection and reporting requirements, on-line communication requirements, and ongoing periodic documentation requirements. This document also provides guidelines for the practical placement and sizing of resources as pertinent to determining the interconnection equipment and system control requirements. The material contained herein has been organized into 4 sections dealing with application issues, existing practices, a unified interconnection approach, and future work. Section 2 of the report discusses the application issues associated with distributed resources and deals with various engineering issues such as overcurrent protection, voltage regulation, and islanding. Section 3 summarizes the existing utility interconnection practices and guidelines as determined from the documents provided by participating utilities. Section 4 presents a unified interconnection approach that is intended to serve as a guide for interconnection of distributed resources to the utility system. And finally, Section 5 outlines possible future areas of study to expand upon the topics discussed in this report.

Recent regulations have required reductions in emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from electricutility boilers. To comply with these regulatory requirements, it is increasingly important to implement state-of-the-art NOx control technologies on coal-fired utility boilers. This paper reviews NOx control options for these boilers. It discusses the established commercial primary and secondary control technologies and examines what is being done to use them more effectively. Furthermore, the paper discusses recent developments in NOx controls. The popular primary control technologies in use in the United States are low-NOx burners and overfire air. Data reflect that average NOx reductions for specific primary controls have ranged from 35% to 63% from 1995 emissions levels. The secondary NOx control technologies applied on U.S. coal-fired utility boilers include reburning, selective noncatalytic reduction (SNCR), and selective catalytic reduction (SCR). Thirty-six U.S. coal-fired utility boilers have installed SNCR, and reported NOx reductions achieved at these applications ranged from 15% to 66%. Recently, SCR has been installed at 150 U.S. coal-fired utility boilers. Data on the performance of 20 SCR systems operating in the United States with low-NOx emissions reflect that in 2003, these units achieved NOx emission rates between 0.04 and 0.07 lb/106 Btu. 106 refs., 6 figs., 6 tabs.

Information on the value of reliable electricity service can be used to assess the economic efficiency of investments in generation, transmission and distribution systems, to strategically target investments to customer segments that receive the most benefit from system improvements, and to numerically quantify the risk associated with different operating, planning and investment strategies. This paper summarizes research designed to provide estimates of the value of service reliability for electricity customers in the US. These estimates were obtained by analyzing the results from 28 customer value of service reliability studies conducted by 10 major US electricutilities over the 16 year period from 1989 to 2005. Because these studies used nearly identical interruption cost estimation or willingness-to-pay/accept methods it was possible to integrate their results into a single meta-database describing the value of electric service reliability observed in all of them. Once the datasets from the various studies were combined, a two-part regression model was used to estimate customer damage functions that can be generally applied to calculate customer interruption costs per event by season, time of day, day of week, and geographical regions within the US for industrial, commercial, and residential customers. Estimated interruption costs for different types of customers and of different duration are provided. Finally, additional research and development designed to expand the usefulness of this powerful database and analysis are suggested.

This study develops an econometric model for explaining how electricutilities revise their forecasts of future electricity demand each year. The model specification is developed from the adaptive expectations hypothesis and it relates forecasted growth rates to actual lagged growth rates of electricity demand. Unlike other studies of the expectation phenomenon, expectations of future demand levels constitute an observable variable and thus can be incorporated explicitly into the model. The data used for the analysis were derived from the published forecasts of the nine National Electric Reliability Councils in the US for the years 1974 to 1980. Three alternative statistical methods are used for estimation purposes: ordinary least-squares, robust regression and a diagnostic analysis to identify influential observations. The results obtained with the first two methods are very similar, but are both inconsistent with the underlying economic logic of the model. The estimated model obtained from the diagnostics approach after deleting two aberrant observations is consistent with economic logic, and supports the hypothesis that the low growth demand experienced immediately following the oil embargo in 1973 were disregarded by the industry for forecasting purposes. The model includes transitory effects associated with the oil embargo that gradually disappear over time, the estimated coefficients for the lagged values of actual growth approach a structure with declining positive weights. The general shape of this asymptotic structure is similar to the findings in many economic applications using distributed lag models.

This report is a legal study prepared to provide a review of the substantive and procedural laws of each regulatory jurisdiction that may affect implementation of the PURPA standards, and to summarize the current state of consideration and implementation of policies and rate designs similar or identical to the PURPA standards by state regulatory agencies and nonregulated utilities. This report is divided into three sections. The first section, the Introduction, summarizes the standards promulgated by PURPA and the results of the legal study. The second section, State Regulatory Law and Procedure, summarizes for each state or other ratemaking jurisdiction: (1) general constitutional and statutory provisions affecting utility rates and conditions of service; (2) specific laws or decisions affecting policy or rate design issues covered by PURPA standards; and (3) statutes and decisions governing administrative procedures, including judicial review. A chart showing actions taken on the policy and rate design issues addressed by PURPA is also included for each jurisdiction, and citations to relevant authorities are presented for each standard. State statutes or decisions that specifically define a state standard similar or identical to a PURPA standard, or that refer to one of the three PURPA objectives, are noted. The third section, Nonregulated ElectricUtilities, summarizes information available on nonregulated utilities, i.e., publicly or cooperatively ownedutilities which are specifically exempted from state regulation by state law.

Data regarding electricity sales (megawatthours) and associated revenue (thousand dollars) are submitted to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) by selected electricutilities on the Form EIA-826, Monthly ElectricUtility Sales and Revenue Report with State Distributions. The monthly survey consists of the utilities with the largest sales within each state and a stratified random sample of the remaining utilities. The Form EIA-826 is designed to facilitate the estimation of electricity sales and associated revenue at the National Census Division, and state level, by class of consumer. These estimates in turn, can be used to calculate average revenue per milowatthour and estimates of sales, revenue, and average revenue per kilowatthour coefficients of variation.

Hybrid electric vehicles with the capability of being recharged from the grid may provide a significant decrease in oil consumption. These ''plug-in'' hybrids (PHEVs) will affect utility operations, adding additional electricity demand. Because many individual vehicles may be charged in the extended overnight period, and because the cost of wireless communication has decreased, there is a unique opportunity for utilities to directly control the charging of these vehicles at the precise times when normal electricity demand is at a minimum. This report evaluates the effects of optimal PHEV charging, under the assumption that utilities will indirectly or directly control when charging takes place, providing consumers with the absolute lowest cost of driving energy. By using low-cost off-peak electricity, PHEVs owners could purchase the drive energy equivalent to a gallon of gasoline for under 75 cents, assuming current national average residential electricity prices.

The results of a study of four solar energy technologies and the electricutility industry are reported. The purpose of the study was to estimate the penetration by federal region of four solar technologies - wind, biomass, phtovoltaics, and solar thermal - in terms of installed capacity and power generated. The penetration by these technologies occurs at the expense of coal and nuclear power. The displacement of coal plants implies a displacement of their air emissions, such as sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, and particulate matter. The main conclusion of this study is that solar thermal, photovoltaics, and biomass fail to penetrate significantly by the end of this century in any federal region. Wind energy penetrates the electricutility industry in several regions during the 1990s. Displaced coal and nuclear generation are also estimated by region, as are the corresponding reductions in air emissions. The small-scale penetration by the solar technologies necessarily limits the amount of conventional fuels displaced and the reduction in air emissions. A moderate displacement of sulfur dioxide and the oxides of nitrogen is estimated to occur by the end of this century, and significant lowering of these emissions should occur in the early part of the next century.

Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) is an emerging technology with features that are potentially attractive in electricutility applications. This study evaluates the potential for SMES technology in the generation, transmission, distribution, and use of electric energy; the time frame of the assessment is through the year 2030. Comparisons are made with other technology options, including both commercially available and advanced systems such as various peaking generation technologies, transmission stability improvement technologies, and power quality enhancement devices. The methodology used for this study focused on the needs of the market place, the capabilities of S and the characteristics of the competing technologies. There is widespread interest within utilities for the development of SMES technology, but there is no general consensus regarding the most attractive size. Considerable uncertainty exists regarding the eventual costs and benefits of commercial SMES systems, but general trends have been developed based on current industry knowledge. Results of this analysis indicate that as storage capacity increases, cost increases at a rate faster than benefits. Transmission system applications requiring dynamic storage appear to have the most attractive economics. Customer service applications may be economic in the near term, but improved ride-through capability of end-use equipment may limit the size of this market over time. Other applications requiring greater storage capacity appear to be only marginally economic at best.

1 July 2016 ______________________________________________________________________________ 1 Utilities [References: FAR 41, DEAR 941 and 970.4102] 1.0 Summary of Latest Changes This update includes administrative changes. 2.0 Discussion This chapter supplements other more primary acquisition regulations and policies contained in the references above and should be considered in the context of those references. 2.1 Overview. This section discusses the acquisition and sales of utility services by

NREL research helps answer a fundamental question regarding electric vehicles: Is the grid ready to handle them? Environmental, economic and security concerns regarding oil consumption make electrifying the transportation sector a high national priority. NREL's Center for Transportation Technologies & Systems (CTTS) has developed a framework for utilities to evaluate the plug-in vehicle (PEV) readiness of distribution transformers. Combining a wealth of vehicle performance statistics with load data from partner utilities including the Hawaiian Electric Company and Xcel Energy, NREL analyzed the thermal loading characteristics of distribution transformers due to vehicle charging. After running millions of simulations replicating varying climates and conditions, NREL is now able to predict aging rates for transformers when PEVs are added to existing building loads. With the NREL tool, users define simulation parameters by inputting vehicle trip and weather data; transformer load profiles and ratings; PEV penetration, charging rates and battery sizes; utility rates; the number of houses on each transformer; and public charging availability. Transformer load profiles, drive cycles, and ambient temperature data are then run through the thermal model to produce a one-year timeseries of the hotspot temperature. Annual temperature durations are calculated to help determine the annual aging rate. Annual aging rate results are grouped by independent variables. The most useful measure is transformer mileage, a measure of how many electrically-driven miles must be supplied by the transformer. Once the spectrum analysis has been conducted for an area or utility, the outputs can be used to help determine if more detailed evaluation is necessary, or if transformer replacement is required. In the majority of scenarios, transformers have enough excess capacity to charge PEVs. Only in extreme cases does vehicle charging have negative long-term impact on transformers. In those cases

The work documented in this report was undertaken as part of an ongoing investigation of innovative and potentially attractive value propositions for electricity storage by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Electricity Storage Systems (ESS) Program. This study characterizes one especially attractive value proposition for modular electricity storage (MES): electricutility transmission and distribution (T&D) upgrade deferral. The T&D deferral benefit is characterized in detail. Also presented is a generalized framework for estimating the benefit. Other important and complementary (to T&D deferral) elements of possible value propositions involving MES are also characterized.

This report is part of a study of ways and means of advancing the national energy conservation effort, particularly with regard to oil, via progress in the technology of tribology. The report is confined to two economic sectors: transportation, where the scope embraces primarily the highway fleets, and electricutilities. Together these two sectors account for half of the US energy consumption. Goal of the study is to ascertain the energy sinks attributable to tribological components and processes and to recommend long-range research and development (R and D) programs aimed at reducing these losses. In addition to the obvious tribological machine components such as bearings, piston rings, transmissions and so on, the study also extends to processes which are linked to tribology indirectly such as wear of machine parts, coatings of blades, high temperature materials leading to higher cycle efficiencies, attenuation of vibration, and other cycle improvements.

Steady development of wind turbine technology, and the accumulation of wind farm operating experience, have resulted in the emergence of wind power as a potentially attractive source of electricity for utilities. Since wind turbines are inherently modular, with medium-sized units typically in the range of a few hundred kilowatts each, they lend themselves well to distributed generation service. A patented wind power technology, the Toroidal Accelerator Rotor Platform (TARP) Windframe, forms the basis for a proposed network-distributed, wind power plant combining electric generation and transmission. While heavily building on proven wind turbine technology, this system is projected to surpass traditional configuration windmills through a unique distribution/transmission combination, superior performance, user-friendly operation and maintenance, and high availability and reliability. Furthermore, its environmental benefits include little new land requirements, relatively attractive appearance, lower noise and EMI/TV interference, and reduced avian (bird) mortality potential. Its cost of energy is projected to be very competitive, in the range of from approximately 2{cents}/kWh to 5{cents}/kWh, depending on the wind resource.

Steady development of wind turbine technology, and the accumulation of wind farm operating experience, have resulted in the emergence of wind power as a potentially attractive source of electricity for utilities. Since wind turbines are inherently modular, with medium-sized units typically in the range of a few hundred kW each, they lend themselves well to distributed generation service. A patented wind power technology, the Toroidal Accelerator Rotor Platform (TARP{trademark}) Windframe{trademark}, forms the basis for a proposed network-distributed, wind power plant combining electric generation and transmission. While heavily building on proven wind turbine technology, this system is projected to surpass traditional configuration windmills through a unique distribution/transmission combination, superior performance, user friendly operation and maintenance, and high availability and reliability. Furthermore, its environmental benefits include little new land requirements, relatively attractive appearance, lower noise and EMI/TV interference, and reduced avian (bird) mortality potential. Its cost of energy is projected to be very competitive, in the range of from approximately 2{cents}/kWh to 5{cents}/ kWh, depending on the wind resource.

In order to bring an electricutility component into the study of hot dry rock geothermal energy called for in the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct), EPRI organized a one-day conference in Philadelphia on January 14,1993. The conference was planned as the first day of a two-day sequence, by coordinating with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). These two federal agencies were charged under EPAct with the development of a report on the potential for hot dry rock geothermal energy production in the US, especially the eastern US. The USGS was given lead responsibility for a report to be done in association with DOE. The EPRI conference emphasized first the status of technology development and testing in the U.S. and abroad, i.e., in western Europe, Russia and Japan. The conference went on to address the extent of knowledge regarding the resource base in the US, especially in the eastern half of the country, and then to address some practical business aspects of organizing projects or industries that could bring these resources into use, either for thermal applications or for electric power generation.

Executive Summary Introduction and Motivation This analysis provides the first insights into the leveraging potential of distributed photovoltaic (PV) technologies on rooftop and electric vehicle (EV) charging. Either of the two technologies by themselves - at some high penetrations – may cause some voltage control challenges or overloading problems, respectively. But when combined, there – at least intuitively – could be synergistic effects, whereby one technology mitigates the negative impacts of the other. High penetration of EV charging may overload existing distribution system components, most prominently the secondary transformer. If PV technology is installed at residential premises or anywhere downstream of the secondary transformer, it will provide another electricity source thus, relieving the loading on the transformers. Another synergetic or mitigating effect could be envisioned when high PV penetration reverts the power flow upward in the distribution system (from the homes upstream into the distribution system). Protection schemes may then no longer work and voltage violation (exceeding the voltage upper limited of the ANSI voltage range) may occur. In this particular situation, EV charging could absorb the electricity from the PV, such that the reversal of power flow can be reduced or alleviated. Given these potential mutual synergistic behaviors of PV and EV technologies, this project attempted to quantify the benefits of combining the two technologies. Furthermore, of interest was how advanced EV control strategies may influence the outcome of the synergy between EV charging and distributed PV installations. Particularly, Californian utility companies with high penetration of the distributed PV technology, who have experienced voltage control problems, are interested how intelligent EV charging could support or affect the voltage control

Section 1 of this report provides a background about the DOE High Performance Power Systems (HIPPS) program. There are two kinds of HIPPS cycles under development. One team is led by the Foster Wheeler Development Corporation, the other team is led by the United Technologies Research Center. These cycles are described. Section 2 summarizes the feedback from the survey of the repowering needs of ten electricutility companies. The survey verified that the utility company planners favor a repowering for a first-of-a-kind demonstration of a new technology rather than an all-new-site application. These planners list the major factor in considering a unit as a repowering candidate as plant age: they identify plants built between 1955 and 1965 as the most likely candidates. Other important factors include the following: the need to reduce operating costs; the need to perform major maintenance/replacement of the boiler; and the need to reduce emissions. Section 3 reports the results of the market assessment. Using the size and age preferences identified in the survey, a market assessment was conducted (with the aid of a power plant data base) to estimate the number and characteristics of US generating units which constitute the current, primary potential market for coal-based repowering. Nearly 250 units in the US meet the criteria determined to be the potential repowering market.

This analysis uses simulated building data, simulated solar photovoltaic (PV) data, and actual electricutility tariff data from 25 cities to understand better the impacts of different commercial rate structures on the value of solar PV systems. By analyzing and comparing 55 unique rate structures across the United States, this study seeks to identify the rate components that have the greatest effect on the value of PV systems. Understanding the beneficial components of utility tariffs can both assist decision makers in choosing appropriate rate structures and influence the development of rates that favor the deployment of PV systems. Results from this analysis show that a PV system's value decreases with increasing demand charges. Findings also indicate that time-of-use rate structures with peaks coincident with PV production and wide ranges between on- and off-peak prices most benefit the types of buildings and PV systems simulated. By analyzing a broad set of rate structures from across the United States, this analysis provides an insight into the range of impacts that current U.S. rate structures have on PV systems.

This report classifies and analyzes the capital and total costs (e.g., income tax, property tax, depreciation, centralized power generation, insurance premiums, and capital financing) associated with 130 electricity distribution system capacity enhancement projects undertaken during 1995-2002 or planned in the 2003-2011 time period by three electric power utilities operating in the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), in cooperation with participating utilities, has developed a large database of over 3,000 distribution system projects. The database includes brief project descriptions, capital cost estimates, the stated need for each project, and engineering data. The database was augmented by additional technical (e.g., line loss, existing substation capacities, and forecast peak demand for power in the area served by each project), cost (e.g., operations, maintenance, and centralized power generation costs), and financial (e.g., cost of capital, insurance premiums, depreciations, and tax rates) data. Though there are roughly 3,000 projects in the database, the vast majority were not included in this analysis because they either did not clearly enhance capacity or more information was needed, and not available, to adequately conduct the cost analyses. For the 130 projects identified for this analysis, capital cost frequency distributions were constructed, and expressed in terms of dollars per kVA of additional capacity. The capital cost frequency distributions identify how the projects contained within the database are distributed across a broad cost spectrum. Furthermore, the PNNL Energy Cost Analysis Model (ECAM) was used to determine the full costs (e.g., capital, operations and maintenance, property tax, income tax, depreciation, centralized power generation costs, insurance premiums and capital financing) associated with delivering electricity to customers, once again expressed in terms of costs per kVA of additional capacity

The utility-accessible alternating current (AC) external disconnect switch (EDS) for distributed generators, including photovoltaic (PV) systems, is a hardware feature that allows a utility?s employees to manually disconnect a customer-owned generator from the electricity grid. This paper examines the utility-accessible EDS debate in the context of utility-interactive PV systems for residential and small commercial installations. It also evaluates the rationale for EDS requirements.

This bibliography provides documentation for use by state public utility commissions and major nonregulated utilities in evaluating the applicability of a wide range of electricutility rate design and regulatory concepts in light of certain regulatory objectives. Part I, Utility Regulatory Objectives, contains 2084 citations on conservation of energy and capital; efficient use of facilities and resources; and equitable rates to electricity consumers. Part II, Rate Design Concepts, contains 1238 citations on time-of-day rates; seasonally-varying rates; cost-of-service rates; interruptible rates (including the accompanying use of load management techniques); declining block rates; and lifeline rates. Part III, Regulatory Concepts, contains 1282 references on restrictions on master metering; procedures for review of automatic adjustment clauses; prohibitions of rate or regulatory discrimination against solar, wind, or other small energy systems; treatment of advertising expenses; and procedures to protect ratepayers from abrupt termination of service.

On May 28th and 29th, a joint workshop organized by Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis (EPSA) and University of California - Irvine’s (UCI) Water UC Irvine was held at the UCI campus. The workshop participants, which included university researchers, utility providers, state and federal agencies, and non-profit organizations, distilled lessons from Western U.S. states and developed recommendations to enable water & electricalutilities, regulators, and other stakeholders to enhance effectiveness and efficiency in both water and electricity use.

In this article, the author reviews FERC's current procedures for undertaking competitive analysis. The current procedure for evaluating the competitive impact of transactions in the electricutility industry is described in Order 592, in particular Appendix A. These procedures effectively revised criteria that had been laid out in Commonwealth Edison and brought its merger policy in line with the EPAct and the provisions of Order 888. Order 592 was an attempt to provide more certainty and expedition in handling mergers. It established three criteria that had to be satisfied for a merger to be approved: Post-merger market power must be within acceptable thresholds or be satisfactorily mitigated, acceptable customer protections must be in place (to ensure that rates will not go up as a result of increased costs) and any adverse effect on regulation must be addressed. FERC states that its Order 592 Merger Policy Statement is based upon the Horizontal Merger Guidelines issued jointly by the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division Department of Justice (FTC/DOJ Merger Guidelines). While it borrows much of the language and basic concepts of the Merger Guidelines, FERC's procedures have been criticized as not following the methodology closely enough, leaving open the possibility of mistakes in market definition.

This report describes the state of the art of electric energy storage technologies and discusses how adding intermittent renewable energy technologies (IRETs) to a utility network affects the benefits from storage dispatch. Load leveling was the mode of storage dispatch examined in the study. However, the report recommended that other modes be examined in the future for kilowatt and kilowatt-hour optimization of storage. The motivation to install storage with IRET generation can arise from two considerations: reliability and enhancement of the value of energy. Because adding storage increases cost, reliability-related storage is attractive only if the accruing benefits exceed the cost of storage installation. The study revealed that the operation of storage should not be guided by the output of the IRET but rather by system marginal costs. Consequently, in planning studies to quantify benefits, storage should not be considered as an entity belonging to the system and not as a component of IRETS. The study also indicted that because the infusion of IRET energy tends to reduce system marginal cost, the benefits from load leveling (value of energy) would be reduced. However, if a system has storage, particularly if the storage is underutilized, its dispatch can be reoriented to enhance the benefits of IRET integration.

Describes the strategies used to comply with the Acid Rain Program in 1995, the effect of compliance on SO2 emissions levels, the cost of compliance, and the effects of the program on coal supply and demand. It updates and expands the EIA report, ElectricUtility Phase I Acid Rain Compliance Strategies for the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.

Changes in power contract terms for customers of Western`s Salt Lake City Area Office affect electricity rates for consumers of electric power in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The impacts of electricity rate changes on consumers are studied by measuring impacts on the rates charged by individual utility systems, determining the average rates in regional areas, and conducting a detailed rate analysis of representative utility systems. The primary focus is an evaluation of the way retail electricity rates for Western`s preference customers vary with alternative pricing and power quantity commitment terms under Western`s long-term contracts to sell power (marketing programs). Retail rate impacts are emphasized because changes in the price of electricity are the most direct economic effect on businesses and residences arising from different Western contractual and operational policies. Retail rates are the mechanism by which changes in cost associated with Western`s contract terms are imposed on ultimate consumers, and rate changes determine the dollar level of payments for electric power incurred by the affected consumers. 41 figs., 9 tabs.

The disparate characteristics between conventional (CVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in terms of driving range, refill/recharge time, and availability of refuel/recharge infrastructure inherently limit the relative utility of BEVs when benchmarked against traditional driver travel patterns. However, given a high penetration of high-power public charging combined with driver tolerance for rerouting travel to facilitate charging on long-distance trips, the difference in utility between CVs and BEVs could be marginalized. We quantify the relationships between BEV utility, the deployment of fast chargers, and driver tolerance for rerouting travel and extending travel durations by simulating BEVs operated over real-world travel patterns using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Battery Lifetime Analysis and Simulation Tool for Vehicles (BLAST-V). With support from the U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office, BLAST-V has been developed to include algorithms for estimating the available range of BEVs prior to the start of trips, for rerouting baseline travel to utilize public charging infrastructure when necessary, and for making driver travel decisions for those trips in the presence of available public charging infrastructure, all while conducting advanced vehicle simulations that account for battery electrical, thermal, and degradation response. Results from BLAST-V simulations on vehicle utility, frequency of inserted stops, duration of charging events, and additional time and distance necessary for rerouting travel are presented to illustrate how BEV utility and travel patterns can be affected by various fast charge deployments.

This publication, Electric Trade in the US 1992 (ELECTRA), is the fourth in a series of reports on wholesale power transactions prepared by the Electric Data Systems Branch, Survey Management Division, Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels, Energy Information Administration (EIA). The electric trade data are published biennially. The first report presented 1986 data, and this report provides information on the electric power industry during 1992. The electric trade data collected and presented in this report furnish important information on the wholesale structure found within the US electric power industry. The patterns of interutility trade in the report support analyses of wholesale power transactions and provide input for a broader understanding of bulk power market issues that define the emerging national electric energy policies. The report includes information on the quantity of power purchased, sold, exchanged, and wheeled; the geographical locations of transactions and ownership classes involved; and the revenues and costs. Information on the physical transmission system are being included for the first time in this publication. Transmission data covering investor-ownedelectricutilities were shifted from the Financial Statistics of Selected Investor-OwnedElectricUtilities to the ELECTRA publication. Some of the prominent features of this year`s report include information and data not published before on transmission lines for publicly ownedutilities and transmission lines added during 1992 by investor-ownedelectricutilities.

Power generation and water consumption are inextricably linked. Because of this relationship DOE/NETL has funded a competitive research and development initiative to address this relationship. This report is part of that initiative and is in response to DOE/NETL solicitation DE-PS26-03NT41719-0. Thermal electric power generation requires large volumes of water to cool spent steam at the end of the turbine cycle. The required volumes are such that new plant siting is increasingly dependent on the availability of cooling circuit water. Even in the eastern U.S., large rivers such as the Monongahela may no longer be able to support additional, large power stations due to subscription of flow to existing plants, industrial, municipal and navigational requirements. Earlier studies conducted by West Virginia University (WV 132, WV 173 phase I, WV 173 Phase II, WV 173 Phase III, and WV 173 Phase IV in review) have identified that a large potential water resource resides in flooded, abandoned coal mines in the Pittsburgh Coal Basin, and likely elsewhere in the region and nation. This study evaluates the technical and economic potential of the Pittsburgh Coal Basin water source to supply new power plants with cooling water. Two approaches for supplying new power plants were evaluated. Type A employs mine water in conventional, evaporative cooling towers. Type B utilizes earth-coupled cooling with flooded underground mines as the principal heat sink for the power plant reject heat load. Existing mine discharges in the Pittsburgh Coal Basin were evaluated for flow and water quality. Based on this analysis, eight sites were identified where mine water could supply cooling water to a power plant. Three of these sites were employed for pre-engineering design and cost analysis of a Type A water supply system, including mine water collection, treatment, and delivery. This method was also applied to a ''base case'' river-source power plant, for comparison. Mine-water system cost

In this report, we will present a descriptive and organizational framework for incremental and fundamental changes to regulatory and utility business models in the context of clean energy public policy goals. We will also discuss the regulated utility's role in providing value-added services that relate to distributed energy resources, identify the "openness" of customer information and utility networks necessary to facilitate change, and discuss the relative risks, and the shifting of risks, for utilities and customers.

This report presents data and analyses related to Phase I implementation of the Clean Air Act Amendment by electricutilities. It describes the strategies used to comply with the Acid Rain Program in 1995, the effect of compliance on sulfur dioxide emissions levels, the cost of compliance, and the effects of the program on coal supply and demand. The first year of Phase I demonstrated that the market-based sulfur dioxide emissions control system could achieve significant reductions in emissions at lower than expected costs. Some utilities reduced aggregate emissions below legal requirements due to economic incentives; other utilities purchased additional allowances to avoid noncompliance. More than half of the utilities switched to or blended with lower sulfur coal, due to price reductions in the coal market which were partially due to the allowance trading program. 21 figs., 20 tabs.

Methods for Analyzing the Benefits and Costs of Distributed Photovoltaic Generation to the U.S. ElectricUtility System Paul Denholm, Robert Margolis, Bryan Palmintier, Clayton Barrows, Eduardo Ibanez, and Lori Bird National Renewable Energy Laboratory Jarett Zuboy Independent Consultant Technical Report NREL/TP-6A20-62447 September 2014 NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable

A method and system for solvent extraction where droplets are shattered by a high intensity electric field. These shattered droplets form a plurality of smaller droplets which have a greater combined surface area than the original droplet. Dispersion, coalescence and phase separation are accomplished in one vessel through the use of the single pulsing high intensity electric field. Electric field conditions are chosen so that simultaneous dispersion and coalescence are taking place in the emulsion formed in the electric field. The electric field creates a large amount of interfacial surface area for solvent extraction when the droplet is disintegrated and is capable of controlling droplet size and thus droplet stability. These operations take place in the presence of a counter current flow of the continuous phase.

Electricutilities, which are dependent on high-sulfur coal are expected to reduce their SO{sub 2} emissions. The strategies for reduction of SO{sub 2} emissions may result in increased CO{sub 2} emissions. Thereby decrease of regional pollution may cause increase of global pollution. Environmental, political, moral, and economic consequences of the two types of pollution differ significantly. Midwestern electricutilities, USA, which are dependent on high-sulfur coal, are analyzed in the paper. However, the same problem is relevant for some European coal fueled power plants. Strategies for reduction of SO{sub 2} emissions, employed by Midwestern electricutilities to comply with the clean Air Act amendments (CAAA) of 1990 and their possible affects on CO{sub 2} emissions, are presented. The paper focuses on two general strategies for reduction of SO{sub 2} emissions. First is coal-switching or blending with a low-sulfur coal. Second is construction and use of flue-gas desulfurization devices (scrubbers). A combination of both strategies is also a viable option. Switching to low-sulfur coal may result in larger CO{sub 2} emissions because that coal has different characteristics and has to be transported much greater distances. Scrubbers require significant amounts of energy for their operation which requires burning more coal. This increases the level of CO{sub 2} emissions.

This report outlines the methods, data, and tools that could be used at different levels of sophistication and effort to estimate the benefits and costs of DGPV. In so doing, we identify the gaps in current benefit-cost-analysis methods, which we hope will inform the ongoing research agenda in this area. The focus of this report is primarily on benefits and costs from the utility or electricity generation system perspective. It is intended to provide useful background information to utility and regulatory decision makers and their staff, who are often being asked to use or evaluate estimates of the benefits and cost of DGPV in regulatory proceedings. Understanding the technical rigor of the range of methods and how they might need to evolve as DGPV becomes a more significant contributor of energy to the electricity system will help them be better consumers of this type of information. This report is also intended to provide information to utilities, policy makers, PV technology developers, and other stakeholders, which might help them maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of integrating DGPV into a changing electricity system.

Wind power has emerged as an attractive alternative source of electricity for utilities. Turbine operating experience from wind farms has provided corroborating data of wind power potential for electricutility application. Now, a patented modular wind power technology, the Toroidal Accelerator Rotor Platform (TARP{trademark}) Windframe{trademark}, forms the basis for next generation megawatt scale wind farm and/or distributed wind power plants. When arranged in tall vertically clustered TARP{trademark} module stacks, such power plant units are designated Wind Amplified Rotor Platform (WARP{trademark}) Systems. While heavily building on proven technology, these systems are projected to surpass current technology windmills in terms of performance, user-friendly operation and ease of maintenance. In its unique generation and transmission configuration, the WARP{trademark}-GT System combines both electricity generation through wind energy conversion and electric power transmission. Furthermore, environmental benefits include dramatically less land requirement, architectural appearance, lower noise and EMI/TV interference, and virtual elimination of bird mortality potential. Cost-of-energy (COE) is projected to be from under $0.02/kWh to less than $0.05/kWh in good to moderate wind resource sites.

There are numerous conditions of the generation system that may ultimately develop into system states affecting system reliability and security. Such generation system conditions should also be considered when evaluating the potential impacts on system operations. The following five issues have been identified to impact system reliability and security to the greatest extent: transmission access/retail wheeling; non-utility generators and independent power producers; integration of dispersed storage and generation into utility distribution systems; EMF and right-of-way limitations; Clean Air Act Amendments. Strictly speaking, some issues are interrelated and one issue cannot be completely dissociated from the others. However, this report addresses individual issues separately in order to determine all major aspects of bulk power system operations affected by each issue. The impacts of the five issues on power system reliability and security are summarized. This report examines the five critical issues that the US electricutility industry will be facing over the next decade. The investigation of their impacts on utility industry will be facing over the next decade. The investigation of their impacts on utility system reliability and security is limited to the system operation viewpoint. Those five issues will undoubtedly influence various planning aspects of the bulk transmission system. However, those subjects are beyond the scope of this report. While the issues will also influence the restructure and business of the utility industry politically, sociologically, environmentally, and economically, all discussion included in the report are focused only on technical ramifications.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in Sacramento, California, is looking to local renewable resources to help meet its aggressive goal of supplying 37% of its power from renewables in 2020.

Most electricity in the world is conventionally generated using coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear energy, or hydropower. Due to environmental concerns, there is a growing interest in alternative energy sources for heat and electricity production. The major by-products obtained from coal combustion are fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) materials. The solid wastes produced in coal-fired power plants create problems for both power-generating industries and environmentalists. The coal fly ash and bottom ash samples may be used as cementitious materials.

China is the largest developing country in the world. Self-supporting and self-sustaining energy supply is the only solution for development. Recently, fast economic development exposed gradually increasing pressure of energy demand and environment concern. In order to increase the production of electricity of China, the Stirling engine system should be developed. This paper provides an investigation of energy production and consumption in China. The main features of the energy consumption and the development objectives of China`s electric power industry are also described. The necessity and possibility of development of Stirling engine system is discussed.

The Schatz Energy Research Center (SERC) assisted the Yurok Tribe in investigating the feasibility of creating a permanent energy services program for the Tribe. The original purpose of the DOE grant that funded this project was to determine the feasibility of creating a full-blown Yurok Tribal electricutility to buy and sell electric power and own and maintain all electric power infrastructure on the Reservation. The original project consultant found this opportunity to be infeasible for the Tribe. When SERC took over as project consultant, we took a different approach. We explored opportunities for the Tribe to develop its own renewable energy resources for use on the Reservation and/or off-Reservation sales as a means of generating revenue for the Tribe. We also looked at ways the Tribe can provide energy services to its members and how to fund such efforts. We identified opportunities for the development of renewable energy resources and energy services on the Yurok Reservation that fall into five basic categories: • Demand-side management – This refers to efforts to reduce energy use through energy efficiency and conservation measures. • Off-grid, facility and household scale renewable energy systems – These systems can provide electricity to individual homes and Tribal facilities in areas of the Reservation that do not currently have access to the electricutility grid. • Village scale, micro-grid renewable energy systems - These are larger scale systems that can provide electricity to interconnected groups of homes and Tribal facilities in areas of the Reservation that do not have access to the conventional electric grid. This will require the development of miniature electric grids to serve these interconnected facilities. • Medium to large scale renewable energy development for sale to the grid – In areas where viable renewable energy resources exist and there is access to the conventional electricutility grid, these resources can be

< back to detailed data Detailed State Data form data (EIA-906, 920, and 923) Revisions & Corrections The re-release of the form EIA-861 survey data: January 13, 2016 Revenue data values were revised due to enhancements to the SEDAPs imputation system. Contact: Electricity data experts

The present invention provides apparatus and methods for producing both heat and electrical energy by burning fuels in a stove or boiler using a novel arrangement of a surface heat exchanger and microturbine-powered generator and novel surface heat exchanger. The equipment is particularly suited for use in rural and relatively undeveloped areas, especially in cold regions and highlands.

This document, Glossary, is the first in a series of reports to identify, describe, and apply techniques for analyzing the impacts of certain electricutility concepts. This report was developed with a focus on the currently evolving issues of ratemaking, especially as they might be expected to arise under Sections 101, 111, 113, 114, 131, 132, and 210 of the P.U.R.P.A. of 1978. Because the evolutionary process of ratemaking has led to multiple proceedings and changes of inference in some terms, the glossary attempts to delineate these changes where appropriate. Definitions not uniquely related to ratemaking are included if they are likely to be used in ratemaking proceedings. To avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and expense, the compilers relied heavily on previously developed, publicly available glossaries and definitions developed by organizations such as Edison Electric Institute, the Electric Power Research Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Existing definitions were revised and new ones were developed as appropriate.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in Sacramento, California, is looking to local renewable resources to help meet its aggressive goal of supplying 37% of its power from renewables by 2020. To help achieve this goal, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provided more than $5 million in funding for several SMUD Community Renewable Energy Deployment (CommRE) projects.

High-voltage electrical apparatus includes an outer housing at low potential, an inner electrode disposed within the outer housing at high potential with respect thereto, and support means for insulatably supporting the inner electrode within the outer housing. Conducting particles contaminate the interior of the outer housing, and an insulating gas electrically insulates the inner electrode from the outer housing even in the presence of the conducting particles. The insulating gas is comprised of sulfur hexafluoride at a partial pressure of from about 2.9 to about 3.4 atmospheres absolute, and helium at a partial pressure from about 1.1 to about 11.4 atmospheres absolute. The sulfur hexafluoride comprises between 20 and 65 volume percent of the insulating gas.

Large blackouts, such as the August 14-15, 2003 blackout in the northeasternUnited States and Canada, focus attention on the importance of reliable electric service. As public and private efforts are undertaken to improve reliability and prevent power interruptions, it is appropriate to assess their effectiveness. Measures of reliability, such as the frequency and duration of power interruptions, have been reported by electricutilities to state public utility commissions for many years. This study examines current state and utility practices for collecting and reporting electricity reliability information and discusses challenges that arise in assessing reliability because of differences among these practices. The study is based primarily on reliability information for 2006 reported by 123 utilities to 37 state public utility commissions.

This document contains summaries of the electricutilities performance-based rate plans for the following companies: Alabama Power Company; Central Maine Power Company; Consolidated Edison of New York; Mississippi Power Company; New York State Electric and Gas Corporation; Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation; PacifiCorp; Pacific Gas and Electric; Southern California Edison; San Diego Gas & Electric; and Tucson Electric Power. In addition, this document also contains information about LBNL`s Power Index and Incentive Properties of a Hybrid Cap and Long-Run Demand Elasticity.

Abstract This paper focuses on the daily electricity management problem for organizations with a large number of employees working within a relatively small geographic location. The organization manages its electric grid including limited on-site energy generation facilities, energy storage facilities, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) charging stations installed in the parking lots. A mixed integer linear program (MILP) is modeled and implemented to assist the organization in determining the temporal allocation of available resources that will minimize energy costs. We consider two cost compensation strategies for PHEV owners: (1) cost equivalent battery replacement reimbursement for utilizing vehicle to grid (V2G) services from PHEVs; (2) gasoline equivalent cost for undercharging of PHEV batteries. Our case study, based on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) campus, produced encouraging results and substantiates the importance of controlled PHEV fleet charging as opposed to uncontrolled charging methods. We further established the importance of realizing V2G capabilities provided by PHEVs in terms of significantly reducing energy costs for the organization.

Performance-Based Ratemaking (PBR) is a form of utility regulation that strengthens the financial incentives to lower rates, lower costs, or improve nonprice performance relative traditional regulation, which the authors call cost-of-service, rate-of-return (COS/ROR) regulation. Although the electricutility industry has considerable experience with incentive mechanisms that target specific areas of performance, implementation of mechanisms that cover a comprehensive set of utility costs or services is relatively rare. In recent years, interest in PBR has increased as a result of growing dissatisfaction with COS/ROR and as a result of economic and technological trends that are leading to more competition in certain segments of the electricity industry. In addition, incentive regulation has been used with some success in other public utility industries, most notably telecommunications in the US and telecommunications, energy, and water in the United Kingdom. In this report, the authors analyze comprehensive PBR mechanisms for electricutilities in four ways: (1) they describe different types of PBR mechanisms, (2) they review a sample of actual PBR plans, (3) they consider the interaction of PBR and utility-funded energy efficiency programs, and (4) they examine how PBR interacts with electricutility resource planning and industry restructuring. The report should be of interest to technical staff of utilities and regulatory commissions that are actively considering or designing PBR mechanisms. 16 figs., 17 tabs.

Florida Power Corporation (FPC) conducted an evaluation of the possible integration of OTEC into the FPC system. Existing system planning procedures, assumptions, and corporate financial criteria for planning new generating capacity were used without modification. A baseline configuration for an OTEC plant was developed for review with standard planning procedures. The OTEC plant characteristics and costs were incorporated in considerable detail. These basic inputs were examined using the FPC system planning methods. It was found that with the initial set of conditions, OTEC would not be economically viable. Using the same system planning procedures, a number of adjustments were made to the key study assumptions. It was found that two considerations dominate the analysis; the assumed rate of fuel cost escalation, and the projected capital cost of the OTEC plant. The analysis produced a parametric curve: on one hand, if fuel costs were to escalate at a rate greater than assumed (12% vs the assumed 5% for coal), and if no change were made to the OTEC input assumptions, the basic economic competitive criteria would be equivalent to the principal alternative, coal fueled plants. Conversely, if the projected cost of the OTEC plant were to be reduced from the assumed $2256/kW to $1450/kW, the economic competitiveness criterion would be satisfied. After corporate financial analysis, it was found that even if the cost competitive criterion were to be reached, the plan including OTEC could not be financed by Florida Power Corporation. Since, under the existing set of conditions for financing new plant capital requirements, FPC could not construct an OTEC plant, some other means of ownership would be necessary to integrate OTEC into the FPC system. An alternative such as a third party owning the plant and selling power to FPC, might prove attractive. (WHK)

All mergers affect competition, some by creating superior competitors and others by creating potential monopolists. The Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 requires prescreening of proposed mergers to identify those that are likely to affect competition adversely. To implement that law, the US Department of Justice`s merger guidelines contain prescreening procedures that attempt a compromise between theoretical rigor, limited data, expeditious processing and consistency. This article discusses the following topics: the guidelines and their relevence, the problems encountered in applying them to electricity markets; FERC`s merger policy and deemphasizing antitrust markets for capacity and energy; critique of capacity and energy markets; general considerations of antitrust activism; general conclusions on the relationship between regulation and antitrust.

In a program sponsored by the Fuel Systems Research Branch of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a series of six electrically heated fuel rod simulation tests were conducted at Pacific Northwest Laboratory. The primary objective of these tests was to determine the susceptibility of irradiated pressurized-water reactor (PWR) Zircaloy-4 cladding to failures caused by pellet-cladding mechanical interaction (PCMI). A secondary objective was to acquire kinetic data (e.g., ridge growth or relaxation rates) that might be helpful in the interpretation of in-reactor performance results and/or the modeling of PCMI. No cladding failures attributable to PCMI occurred during the six tests. This report describes the testing methods, testing apparatus, fuel rod diametral strain-measuring device, and test matrix. Test results are presented and discussed.

Presents data about corporate combinations involving investor-ownedutilities in the United States, discusses corporate objectives for entering into such combinations, and assesses their cumulative effects on the structure of the electric power industry.

The EERC developed an applied research consortium project to test cost-effective mercury (Hg) control technologies for utilities burning bituminous coals. The project goal was to test innovative Hg control technologies that have the potential to reduce Hg emissions from bituminous coal-fired power plants by {ge}90% at costs of one-half to three-quarters of current estimates for activated carbon injection (ACI). Hg control technology evaluations were performed using the EERC's combustion test facility (CTF). The CTF was fired on pulverized bituminous coals at 550,000 Btu/hr (580 MJ/hr). The CTF was configured with the following air pollution control devices (APCDs): selective catalytic reduction (SCR) unit, electrostatic precipitator (ESP), and wet flue gas desulfurization system (WFDS). The Hg control technologies investigated as part of this project included ACI (three Norit Americas, Inc., and eleven Envergex sorbents), elemental mercury (Hg{sup 0}) oxidation catalysts (i.e., the noble metals in Hitachi Zosen, Cormetech, and Hitachi SCR catalysts), sorbent enhancement additives (SEAs) (a proprietary EERC additive, trona, and limestone), and blending with a Powder River Basin (PRB) subbituminous coal. These Hg control technologies were evaluated separately, and many were also tested in combination.

This paper examines the potential role of large scale, dedicated commercial biomass energy systems under global climate policies designed to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of CO2 at 400ppm and 450ppm. We use an integrated assessment model of energy and agriculture systems to show that, given a climate policy in which terrestrial carbon is appropriately valued equally with carbon emitted from the energy system, biomass energy has the potential to be a major component of achieving these low concentration targets. The costs of processing and transporting biomass energy at much larger scales than current experience are also incorporated into the modeling. From the scenario results, 120-160 EJ/year of biomass energy is produced by midcentury and 200-250 EJ/year by the end of this century. In the first half of the century, much of this biomass is from agricultural and forest residues, but after 2050 dedicated cellulosic biomass crops become the dominant source. A key finding of this paper is the role that carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technologies coupled with commercial biomass energy can play in meeting stringent emissions targets. Despite the higher technology costs of CCS, the resulting negative emissions used in combination with biomass are a very important tool in controlling the cost of meeting a target, offsetting the venting of CO2 from sectors of the energy system that may be more expensive to mitigate, such as oil use in transportation. The paper also discusses the role of cellulosic ethanol and Fischer-Tropsch biomass derived transportation fuels and shows that both technologies are important contributors to liquid fuels production, with unique costs and emissions characteristics. Through application of the GCAM integrated assessment model, it becomes clear that, given CCS availability, bioenergy will be used both in electricity and transportation.

The U.S. Department of Energy and ADA Environmental Solutions has begun a project to develop commercial flue gas conditioning additives. The objective is to develop conditioning agents that can help improve particulate control performance of smaller or under-sized electrostatic precipitators on utility coal-fired boilers. The new chemicals will be used to control both the electrical resistivity and the adhesion or cohesivity of the flyash. There is a need to provide cost-effective and safer alternatives to traditional flue gas conditioning with SO{sub 3} and ammonia. Preliminary testing has identified a class of common deliquescent salts that effectively control flyash resistivity on a variety of coals. A method to evaluate cohesive properties of flyash in the laboratory has been selected and construction of an electrostatic tensiometer test fixture is underway. Preliminary selection of a variety of chemicals that will be screened for effect on flyash cohesion has been completed.

The benefit of using a PHEV comes from its ability to substitute gasoline with electricity in operation. Defined as the proportion of distance traveled in the electric mode, the utility factor (UF) depends mostly on the battery capacity, but also on many other factors, such as travel pattern and recharging pattern. Conventionally, the UFs are calculated based on the daily vehicle miles traveled (DVMT) by assuming motorists leave home in the morning with a full battery, and no charge occurs before returning home in the evening. Such an assumption, however, ignores the impact of the heterogeneity in both travel and charging behavior, such as going back home more than once in a day, the impact of available charging time, and the price of gasoline. In addition, the conventional UFs are based on the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data, which are one-day travel data of each sample vehicle. A motorist's daily distance variation is ignored. This paper employs the GPS-based longitudinal travel data (covering 3-18 months) collected from 403 vehicles in the Seattle metropolitan area to investigate how such travel and charging behavior affects UFs. To do this, for each vehicle, we organized trips to a series of home and work related tours. The UFs based on the DVMT are found close to those based on home-to-home tours. However, it is seen that the workplace charge opportunities significantly increase UFs if the CD range is no more than 40 miles.

The benefit of using a PHEV comes from its ability to substitute gasoline with electricity in operation. Defined as the proportion of distance traveled in the electric mode, the utility factor (UF) depends mostly on the battery capacity, but also on many other factors, such as travel pattern and recharging pattern. Conventionally, the UFs are calculated based on the daily vehicle miles traveled (DVMT) by assuming motorists leave home in the morning with a full battery, and no charge occurs before returning home in the evening. Such an assumption, however, ignores the impact of the heterogeneity in both travel andmore » charging behavior, such as going back home more than once in a day, the impact of available charging time, and the price of gasoline. In addition, the conventional UFs are based on the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data, which are one-day travel data of each sample vehicle. A motorist's daily distance variation is ignored. This paper employs the GPS-based longitudinal travel data (covering 3-18 months) collected from 403 vehicles in the Seattle metropolitan area to investigate how such travel and charging behavior affects UFs. To do this, for each vehicle, we organized trips to a series of home and work related tours. The UFs based on the DVMT are found close to those based on home-to-home tours. However, it is seen that the workplace charge opportunities significantly increase UFs if the CD range is no more than 40 miles.« less

A clear understanding of the monetary value that customers place on reliability and the factors that give rise to higher and lower values is an essential tool in determining investment in the grid. The recent National Transmission Grid Study recognizes the need for this information as one of growing importance for both public and private decision makers. In response, the U.S. Department of Energy has undertaken this study, as a first step toward addressing the current absence of consistent data needed to support better estimates of the economic value of electricity reliability. Twenty-four studies, conducted by eight electricutilities between 1989 and 2002 representing residential and commercial/industrial (small, medium and large) customer groups, were chosen for analysis. The studies cover virtually all of the Southeast, most of the western United States, including California, rural Washington and Oregon, and the Midwest south and east of Chicago. All variables were standardized to a consistent metric and dollar amounts were adjusted to the 2002 CPI. The data were then incorporated into a meta-database in which each outage scenario (e.g., the lost of electric service for one hour on a weekday summer afternoon) is treated as an independent case or record both to permit comparisons between outage characteristics and to increase the statistical power of analysis results. Unadjusted average outage costs and Tobit models that estimate customer damage functions are presented. The customer damage functions express customer outage costs for a given outage scenario and customer class as a function of location, time of day, consumption, and business type. One can use the damage functions to calculate outage costs for specific customer types. For example, using the customer damage functions, the cost experienced by an ''average'' customer resulting from a 1 hour summer afternoon outage is estimated to be approximately $3 for a residential customer, $1,200 for small

An American Public Power Association (APPA) task force study on benchmarking for electricutilities is presented. Benchmark studies were made of three activities: (1) Tree trimming; (2) Service line installation to single family residence; (3) Distribution revenue meter testing and repair criteria. The results of the study areas are summarized for 15 utilities. The methodologies used for data collection and analysis are discussed. 28 figs., 9 tabs.

The U.S. Department of Energy and ADA Environmental Solutions are engaged in a project to develop commercial flue gas conditioning additives. The objective is to develop conditioning agents that can help improve particulate control performance of smaller or under-sized electrostatic precipitators on utility coal-fired boilers. The new chemicals will be used to control both the electrical resistivity and the adhesion or cohesivity of the fly ash. There is a need to provide cost-effective and safer alternatives to traditional flue gas conditioning with SO{sub 3} and ammonia. During this reporting quarter, performance testing of flue gas conditioning was underway at the PacifiCorp Jim Bridger Power Plant. The product tested, ADA-43, was a combination resistivity modifier with cohesivity polymers. This represents the first long-term full-scale testing of this class of products. Modifications to the flue gas conditioning system at Jim Bridger, including development of alternate injection lances, was also undertaken to improve chemical spray distribution and to avoid spray deposition to duct interior surfaces. Also in this quarter, a firm commitment was received for another long-term test of the cohesivity additives. This plant fires a bituminous coal and has opacity and particulate emissions performance issues related to fly ash re-entrainment. Ammonia conditioning is employed here on one unit, but there is interest in liquid cohesivity additives as a safer alternative.

The Department of Energy awarded a cooperative agreement on January 16, 2009, to the Arizona State University (ASU) Board of Regents to operate the Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC). PSERC is a collaboration of 13 universities with 35 electricity industry member organizations including utilities, transmission companies, vendors and research organizations.

Renewable energy certificates (RECs) are tradable instruments that convey the attributes of a renewable energy generator and the right to make certain claims about energy purchases. RECs first appeared in US markets in the late 1990s and are particularly important in states that accept or require them as evidence of compliance with renewables portfolio standards (RPS). The emergence of RECs as a tradable commodity has made utilities, generators, and regulators increasingly aware of the need to specify who owns the RECs in energy transactions. In voluntary transactions, most agree that the question of REC ownership can and should be negotiated privately between the buyer and the seller, and should be clearly established by contract. Claims about purchasing or using renewable energy should only be made if REC ownership can be documented. In many other cases, however, renewable energy transactions are either mandated or encouraged through state or federal policy. Because of the recent appearance of RECs, legislation and regulation mandating the purchase of renewable energy has sometimes been silent on the disposition of the RECs associated with that generation. Furthermore, some renewable energy contracts pre-date the existence of RECs, and therefore do not address REC ownership. In both of these instances, the issue of REC ownership must often be answered by legislative or regulatory authorities. The resulting uncertainty in REC ownership has hindered the development of robust REC markets and has, in some cases, led to contention between buyers and sellers of renewable generation. This article, which is based on a longer Berkeley Lab report, reviews federal and state efforts to clarify the ownership of RECs from Qualifying Facilities (QFs) that sell their generation under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978. The full report also addresses state efforts to clarify REC ownership in two other situations, customer-owned generation that benefits

This paper describes the utility-accessible alternating current (AC) external disconnect switch (EDS) for distributed generators, including photovoltaic (PV) systems, which is a hardware feature that allows a utility's employees to manually disconnect a customer-owned generator from the electricity grid.

The emergence of competitive markets for electricity generation services is changing the way that electricity is and will be priced in the United States. This report presents the results of an analysis that focuses on two questions: (1) How are prices for competitive generation services likely to differ from regulated prices if competitive prices are based on marginal costs rather than regulated {open_quotes}cost-of-service{close_quotes} pricing? (2) What impacts will the competitive pricing of generation services (based on marginal costs) have on electricity consumption patterns, production costs, and the financial integrity patterns, production costs, and the financial integrity of electricity suppliers? This study is not intended to be a cost-benefit analysis of wholesale or retail competition, nor does this report include an analysis of the macroeconomic impacts of competitive electricity prices.

At the same time that the electricutility industry is in the midst of deregulation, it could be hit with numerous additional regulatory burdens. For example, EPA now plans to decide by July 1997 whether to make major changes to the current ozone and particulate matter ambient standards -- changes which could force utilities to reduce significantly both their nitrogen oxide (NO{sub x}) and sulfur dioxide (SO{sub 2}) emissions. Even if EPA does not adopt new ambient standards, though, many electricutilities still face the prospect of making additional NO{sub x} reductions if they are found to be contributing to ozone levels in areas that are not meeting the current ozone ambient standards. Several multi-state groups -- notably the Ozone Transport Assessment Group (OTAG) and the Northeast Ozone Transport Commission (OTC) -- are evaluating programs that could lead to calls for additional NO{sub x} reductions from power plants in ozone nonattainment areas and from plants located outside the nonattainment areas but found to be contributing to ozone levels in those areas. And these multi-state groups are motivated not only by pollution levels they see now, but also by what they fear will be increased pollution levels as a result of deregulation. This paper examines the status of the major rulemakings now underway that could force substantial additional reductions in electricutility NO{sub x} and SO{sub 2} emissions. It also discusses the impacts that deregulation could have in those rulemakings.

In the early 1990s, only a handful of utilities offered their customers a choice of purchasing electricity generated from renewable energy sources. Today, nearly 600 utilities in regulated electricity markets--or almost 20% of all utilities nationally--provide their customers a "green power" option. Because some utilities offer programs in conjunction with cooperative associations or other publicly owned power entities, the number of distinct programs totals about 125. Through these programs, more than 40 million customers spanning 34 states have the ability to purchase renewable energy to meet some portion or all of their electricity needs--or make contributions to support the development of renewable energy resources. Typically, customers pay a premium above standard electricity rates for this service. This report presents year-end 2004 data on utility green pricing programs, and examines trends in consumer response and program implementation over time. The data in this report, which were obtained via a questionnaire distributed to utility green pricing program managers, can be used by utilities as benchmarks by which to gauge the success of their green power programs.

Implementation Model: Landlord-Owned Solar Helps Retailer Offset More than 65% of Energy Use BARRIER Retailers in leased spaces are challenged to install on- site solar when it requires purchasing the system or relying on a third-party lease provider SOLUTION Work with the landlord who installs, owns, and maintains the solar array and sells power directly to the retailer at a fixed rate that is at or below electricity rates OUTCOME Retailer saves money and accesses clean power to meet 65% of

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is preparing a compendium of technical requirements, referred to as the {open_quotes}Advanced Light Water Reactor [ALWR] Utility Requirements Document{close_quotes}, that is acceptable to the design of an ALWR power plant. When completed, this document is intended to be a comprehensive statement of utility requirements for the design, construction, and performance of an ALWR power plant for the 1990s and beyond. The Requirements Document consists of three volumes. Volume I, {open_quotes}ALWR Policy and Summary of Top-Tier Requirements{close_quotes}, is a management-level synopsis of the Requirements Document, including the design objectives and philosophy, the overall physical configuration and features of a future nuclear plant design, and the steps necessary to take the proposed ALWR design criteria beyond the conceptual design state to a completed, functioning power plant. Volume II consists of 13 chapters and contains utility design requirements for an evolutionary nuclear power plant [approximately 1350 megawatts-electric (MWe)]. Volume III contains utility design requirements for nuclear plants for which passive features will be used in their designs (approximately 600 MWe). In April 1992, the staff of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, issued Volume 1 and Volume 2 (Parts 1 and 2) of its safety evaluation report (SER) to document the results of its review of Volumes 1 and 2 of the Requirements Document. Volume 1, {open_quotes}NRC Review of Electric Power Research Institute`s Advanced Light Water Reactor Utility Requirements Document - Program Summary{close_quotes}, provided a discussion of the overall purpose and scope of the Requirements Document, the background of the staff`s review, the review approach used by the staff, and a summary of the policy and technical issues raised by the staff during its review.

This manual is designed to provide guidance to state consumer advocates and other state consumer groups interested in either initiating and/or participating in an Least-Cost Utility Planning (LCUP) process in their state. Least cost utility planning examined primarily as a regulatory framework to be implemented by an appropriate state authority -- usually the public utility commission -- for the benefit of the state`s citizens and electricutility customers. LCUP is also a planning process to be used by investor owned and public utilities to select, support and justify future expenditures in resource additions. This manual is designed as a ``How-To`` manual for implementing and participating in a statewide LCUP process. Its goal is to guide the reader through the LCUP maze so that meaningful, forward-looking, and cost minimizing electricutility planning can be initiated and sustained in your state.

This manual is designed to provide guidance to state consumer advocates and other state consumer groups interested in either initiating and/or participating in an Least-Cost Utility Planning (LCUP) process in their state. Least cost utility planning examined primarily as a regulatory framework to be implemented by an appropriate state authority -- usually the public utility commission -- for the benefit of the state's citizens and electricutility customers. LCUP is also a planning process to be used by investor owned and public utilities to select, support and justify future expenditures in resource additions. This manual is designed as a How-To'' manual for implementing and participating in a statewide LCUP process. Its goal is to guide the reader through the LCUP maze so that meaningful, forward-looking, and cost minimizing electricutility planning can be initiated and sustained in your state.

This is the final report for the DOE-NETL grant entitled 'Creating New Incentives for Risk Identification & Insurance Processes for the ElectricUtility Industry' and later, 'Energy & Risk Transfer Assessment'. It reflects work done on projects from 15 August 2004 to 29 February 2008. Projects were on a variety of topics, including commercial insurance for electricalutilities, the Electrical Reliability Organization, cost recovery by Gulf State electricalutilities after major hurricanes, and review of state energy emergency plans. This Final Technical Report documents and summarizes all work performed during the award period, which in this case is from 15 August 2004 (date of notification of original award) through 29 February 2008. This report presents this information in a comprehensive, integrated fashion that clearly shows a logical and synergistic research trajectory, and is augmented with findings and conclusions drawn from the research as a whole. Four major research projects were undertaken and completed during the 42 month period of activities conducted and funded by the award; these are: (1) Creating New Incentives for Risk Identification and Insurance Process for the ElectricUtility Industry (also referred to as the 'commercial insurance' research). Three major deliverables were produced: a pre-conference white paper, a two-day facilitated stakeholders workshop conducted at George Mason University, and a post-workshop report with findings and recommendations. All deliverables from this work are published on the CIP website at http://cipp.gmu.edu/projects/DoE-NETL-2005.php. (2) The New Electric Reliability Organization (ERO): an examination of critical issues associated with governance, standards development and implementation, and jurisdiction (also referred to as the 'ERO study'). Four major deliverables were produced: a series of preliminary memoranda for the staff of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability ('OE'), an ERO interview

ADA Environmental Solutions (ADA-ES) has successfully completed a research and development program granted by the Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to develop a family of non-toxic flue gas conditioning agents to provide utilities and industries with a cost-effective means of complying with environmental regulations on particulate emissions and opacity. An extensive laboratory screening of potential additives was completed followed by full-scale trials at four utility power plants. The developed cohesivity additives have been demonstrated on a 175 MW utility boiler that exhibited poor collection of unburned carbon in the electrostatic precipitator. With cohesivity conditioning, opacity spiking caused by rapping reentrainment was reduced and total particulate emissions were reduced by more than 30%. Ammonia conditioning was also successful in reducing reentrainment on the same unit. Conditioned fly ash from the process is expected to be suitable for dry or wet disposal and for concrete admixture.

In the early 1990s, only a handful of utilities offered their customers a choice of purchasing electricity generated from renewable energy sources. Today, more than 600 utilities—or about 20% of all utilities nationally—provide their customers a “green power” option. Because some utilities offer programs in conjunction with cooperative associations or other publicly owned power entities, the number of distinct programs totals more than 130. Through these programs, more than 50 million customers have the ability to purchase renewable energy to meet some portion or all of their electricity needs—or make contributions to support the development of renewable energy resources. Typically, customers pay a premium above standard electricity rates for this service. This report presents year-end 2005 data on utility green pricing programs, and examines trends in consumer response and program implementation over time. The data in this report, which were obtained via a questionnaire distributed to utility green pricing program managers, can be used by utilities to benchmark the success of their green power programs.

Task 2 involved identifying daily operational characteristics of select vehicles and initiating data logging of vehicle movements in order to characterize the vehicle’s mission. Individual observations of these selected vehicles provide the basis for recommendations related to PEV adoption and whether a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) (collectively PEVs) can fulfill the mission requirements and provides observations related to placement of PEV charging infrastructure. This report provides the results of the data analysis and observations related to the replacement of current vehicles with PEVs. This fulfills part of the Task 3 requirements. Task 3 also includes an assessment of charging infrastructure required to support this replacement. That is the subject of a separate report.

This paper will discuss some of the unique aspects of a build/own/operate cogeneration project for an oil refinery in which Foster Wheeler is involved. The organization is constructing a 90 MW plant that will supply 55 MW and 160,000 lb/hr of 600 psi, 700F steam to the Tosco Corporation's 130,000 bd Avon Oil Refinery in Martinez, California. (The refinery is located about 45 miles northeast of San Francisco.) Surplus power production will be sold to the local utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG and E). Many of the aspects of this project took on a different perspective, since the contractor would build, own and operate the plant.

This report is a primer for solar developers who wish to engage directly in expediting the regulatory process and removing market barriers related to policy and planning. Market barriers unrelated to technology often limit the expansion of utility-scale solar power, even in areas with exceptional resource potential. Many of these non-technical barriers have to do with policy, regulation, and planning, and hardly ever do they resolve themselves in a timely fashion. In most cases, pre-emptive intervention by interested stakeholders is the easiest way to remove/address such barriers, but it requires knowing how to navigate the institutional waters of the relevant agencies and boards. This report is a primer for solar developers who wish to engage directly in expediting the regulatory process and removing market barriers related to policy and planning. It focuses on the Western Interconnection (WI), primarily because the quality of solar resources in the Southwest makes utility-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) and photovoltaics (PV) economically feasible, and because the relevant institutions have evolved in a way that has opened up opportunities for removing non-technical market barriers. Developers will find in this report a high-level field manual to identify the venues for mitigating and possibly eliminating systemic market obstacles and ensuring that the economic playing field is reasonably level. Project-specific issues such as siting for transmission and generation resources are beyond the scope of this report. Instead, the aim is to examine issues that pervasively affect all utility-scale PV and CSP in the region regardless of where the project may be. While the focus is on the WI, many of the institutions described here also have their counterparts in the Eastern and the Texas interconnections. Specifically, this report suggests a number of critical engagement points relating to generation and transmission planning.

Flakes or platelets of polymer liquid crystals (PLC) or other birefringent polymers (BP) suspended in a fluid host medium constitute a system that can function as the active element in an electrically switchable optical device when the suspension is either contained between a pair of rigid substrates bearing transparent conductive coatings or dispersed as microcapsules within the body of a flexible host polymer. Optical properties of these flake materials include large effective optical path length, different polarization states and high angular sensitivity in their selective reflection or birefringence. The flakes or platelets of these devices need only a 3-20.degree. rotation about the normal to the cell surface to achieve switching characteristics obtainable with prior devices using particle rotation or translation.

This report provides an overview of trends concerning electricity demand and supply in the developing countries in the 1980--1990 period, with special focus on 13 major countries for which we have assembled consistent data series. We describe the linkage between electricity demand and economic growth, the changing sectoral composition of electricity consumption, and changes in the mix of energy sources for electricity generation. We also cover trends in the efficiency of utilityelectricity supply with respect to power plant efficiency and own-use and delivery losses, and consider the trends in carbon dioxide emissions from electricity supply.

On the high plains, a wind-electric stock water pumping system produces a significant amount of excess power over the winter months due to intense winds and the decreased water consumption by cattle. The University of Wyoming is developing a multi-tasking system to utilize this excess energy to resistively heat a small sector of the stock tank at its demonstration/experimental site. This paper outlines the detailed heat transfer analysis that predicted drinking water temperature and icing conditions. It also outlines the optimization criteria and the power produced by the Bergey 1500 wind electric system. Results show that heating a smaller insulated tank inserted into the larger tank would raise the drinking water temperature by a maximum of 6.7 {degrees}C and eliminate icing conditions. The returns associated with the additional cattle weight gain, as a result of the consumption of warmer water, showed that system modification costs would be recovered the first year. 12 refs., 11 figs., 2 tabs.

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 incorporate, for the first time, provisions aimed specifically at the control of acid rain. These provisions restrict emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO[sub 2]) and oxides of nitrogen (NO[sub x]) from electric power generating stations. The restrictions on SO[sub 2] take the form of an overall cap on the aggregate emissions from major generating plants, allowing substantial flexibility in the industry's response to those restrictions. This report discusses one response scenario through the year 2030 that was examined through a simulation of the utility industry based on assumptions consistent with characterizations used in the National Energy Strategy reference case. It also makes projections of emissions that would result from the use of existing and new capacity and of the associated additional costs of meeting demand subject to the emission limitations imposed by the Clean Air Act. Fuel-use effects, including coal-market shifts, consistent with the response scenario are also described. These results, while dependent on specific assumptions for this scenario, provide insight into the general character of the likely utility industry response to Title IV.

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 incorporate, for the first time, provisions aimed specifically at the control of acid rain. These provisions restrict emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO{sub 2}) and oxides of nitrogen (NO{sub x}) from electric power generating stations. The restrictions on SO{sub 2} take the form of an overall cap on the aggregate emissions from major generating plants, allowing substantial flexibility in the industry`s response to those restrictions. This report discusses one response scenario through the year 2030 that was examined through a simulation of the utility industry based on assumptions consistent with characterizations used in the National Energy Strategy reference case. It also makes projections of emissions that would result from the use of existing and new capacity and of the associated additional costs of meeting demand subject to the emission limitations imposed by the Clean Air Act. Fuel-use effects, including coal-market shifts, consistent with the response scenario are also described. These results, while dependent on specific assumptions for this scenario, provide insight into the general character of the likely utility industry response to Title IV.

This central utilities plant model details the major elements of a central utilities plant for several classes of users. The model enables the analyst to select optional, cost effective, plant features that are appropriate to a fuel cell application. These features permit the future plant owner to exploit all of the energy produced by the fuel cell, thereby reducing the total cost of ownership. The model further affords the analyst an opportunity to identify avoided costs of the fuel cell-based power plant. This definition establishes the performance and capacity information, appropriate to the class of user, to support the capital cost model and the feasibility analysis. It is detailed only to the depth required to identify the major elements of a fuel cell-based system. The model permits the choice of system features that would be suitable for a large condominium complex or a residential institution such as a hotel, boarding school or prison. The user may also select large office buildings that are characterized by 12 to 16 hours per day of operation or industrial users with a steady demand for thermal and electrical energy around the clock.

This report presents a comparison of battery and fuel cell economics for ten different technologies. To develop an equitable economic comparison, the technologies were evaluated on a life-cycle cost (LCC) basis. The LCC comparison involved normalizing source estimates to a standard set of assumptions and preparing a lifetime cost scenario for each technology, including the initial capital cost, replacement costs, operating and maintenance (O M) costs, auxiliary energy costs, costs due to system inefficiencies, the cost of energy stored, and salvage costs or credits. By considering all the costs associated with each technology over its respective lifetime, the technology that is most economical to operate over any given period of time can be determined. An analysis of this type indicates whether paying a high initial capital cost for a technology with low O M costs is more or less economical on a lifetime basis than purchasing a technology with a low initial capital cost and high O M costs. It is important to realize that while minimizing cost is important, the customer will not always purchase the least expensive technology. The customer may identify benefits associated with a more expensive option that make it the more attractive over all (e.g., reduced construction lead times, modularity, environmental benefits, spinning reserve, etc.). The LCC estimates presented in this report represent three end-use applications: utility load-leveling, stand-alone power systems, and electric vehicles.

We explain the relationship between Majorana neutrinos, which are their own antiparticles, and Majorana neutrino masses. We point out that Majorana masses would make the neutrinos very distinctive particles, and explain why many theorists strongly suspect that neutrinos do have Majorana masses. The promising approach to confirming this suspicion is to seek neutrinoless double beta decay. We introduce a toy model that illustrates why this decay requires nonzero neutrino masses, even when there are both right-handed and left-handed weak currents.

Any upgrade to utility service provides an opportunity to revisit a Federal building's electrical loads and costs, but it also may provide an economic way to bundle the upgrade with an onsite renewable electricity project during renovation. Upgrading utility service to the site may involve improving or adding a transformer, upgrading utility meters, or otherwise modifying the interconnection equipment or services with the utility. In some cases, the upgrade may change the tariff structure for the facility and may qualify the property for a different structure with lower overall costs. In all cases, the implementation of renewable energy technologies should be identified during the design phase.

The long economic lifetime and development lead-time of many electric infrastructure investments requires that utility resource planning consider potential costs and risks over a lengthy time horizon. One long-term -- and potentially far-reaching -- risk currently facing the electricity industry is the uncertain cost of future carbon dioxide (CO2) regulations. Recognizing the importance of this issue, many utilities (sometimes spurred by state regulatory requirements) are beginning to actively assess carbon regulatory risk within their resource planning processes, and to evaluate options for mitigating that risk. However, given the relatively recent emergence of this issue and the rapidly changing political landscape, methods and assumptions used to analyze carbon regulatory risk, and the impact of this analysis on the selection of a preferred resource portfolio, vary considerably across utilities. In this study, we examine the treatment of carbon regulatory risk in utility resource planning, through a comparison of the most-recent resource plans filed by fifteen investor-owned and publicly-ownedutilities in the Western U.S. Together, these utilities account for approximately 60percent of retail electricity sales in the West, and cover nine of eleven Western states. This report has two related elements. First, we compare and assess utilities' approaches to addressing key analytical issues that arise when considering the risk of future carbon regulations. Second, we summarize the composition and carbon intensity of the preferred resource portfolios selected by these fifteen utilities and compare them to potential CO2 emission benchmark levels.

Hualapai Tribal Utility Project Tribal Utility Project DOE First Steps Program DOE First Steps Program Jack Ehrhardt Jack Ehrhardt - - Hualapai Planning Director Hualapai Planning Director WHO WE ARE WHO WE ARE ~1 MILLION ACRES IN ~1 MILLION ACRES IN NW ARIZONA NW ARIZONA 108 MILES OF THE 108 MILES OF THE GRAND CANYON GRAND CANYON 2500 Members 2500 Members Peach Springs Peach Springs Community Community ~240 electric customers ~240 electric customers ECONOMIC SITUATION ECONOMIC SITUATION Very

In this report, we identify and define the key public-policy values, objectives, and actions that the US electricity industry currently meets. We also discuss the opportunities for meeting these objectives in a restructured industry that relies primarily on market forces rather than on government mandates. And we discuss those functions that governments might undertake, presumably because they will not be fully met by a restructured industry on its own. These discussions are based on a variety of inputs. The most important inputs came from participants in an April 1995 workshop on Public-Policy Responsibilities and Electric Industry Restructuring: Shaping the Research Agenda. Other sources of information and insights include the reviews of a draft of this report by workshop participants and others and the rapidly growing literature on electric-industry restructuring and its implications. One of the major concerns about the future of the electricity industry is the fate of numerous social and environmental programs supported by today`s electricutilities. Many people worry that a market-driven industry may not meet the public-policy objectives that electricutilities have met in the past. Examples of potentially at-risk programs include demand-side management (DSM), renewable energy, low-income weatherization, and fuel diversity. Workshop participants represented electricutilities, public utility commissions (PUCs), state energy offices, public-interest groups, other energy providers, and the research community.

This paper examines the potential role of large scale, dedicated commercial biomass energy systems under global climate policies designed to meet atmospheric concentrations of CO2 at 400ppm and 450ppm by the end of the century. We use an integrated assessment model of energy and agriculture systems to show that, given a climate policy in which terrestrial carbon is appropriately valued equally with carbon emitted from the energy system, biomass energy has the potential to be a major component of achieving these low concentration targets. A key aspect of the research presented here is that the costs of processing and transporting biomass energy at much larger scales than current experience are explicitly incorporated into the modeling. From the scenario results, 120-160 EJ/year of biomass energy is produced globally by midcentury and 200-250 EJ/year by the end of this century. In the first half of the century, much of this biomass is from agricultural and forest residues, but after 2050 dedicated cellulosic biomass crops become the majority source, along with growing utilization of waste-to-energy. The ability to draw on a diverse set of biomass based feedstocks helps to reduce the pressure for drastic large-scale changes in land use and the attendant environmental, ecological, and economic consequences those changes would unleash. In terms of the conversion of bioenergy feedstocks into value added energy, this paper demonstrates that biomass is and will continue to be used to generate electricity as well as liquid transportation fuels. A particular focus of this paper is to show how climate policies and technology assumptions - especially the availability of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technologies - affect the decisions made about where the biomass is used in the energy system. The potential for net-negative electric sector emissions through the use of CCS with biomass feedstocks provides an attractive part of the solution for meeting stringent

In order to anticipate the need for generating capacity, utility planners must estimate the future growth in electricity demand. The need for demand forecasts is no less important for the nation's Rural Electric Cooperatives (RECs) than it is for the investor-ownedutilities. The RECs serve an historically agrarian region; therefore, the irrigation sector accounts for a significant portion of the western RECs' total demand. A model is developed of the RECs' demand for electricity used in irrigation. The model is a simultaneous equation system which focuses on both the short-run utilization of electricity in irrigation and the long-run determination of the number of irrigators using electricity. Irrigation demand is described by a set of equations in which the quantity of electricity demanded, the average electricity price, the number of irrigation customers, and the ratio of electricity to total energy used for irrigation are endogenous. The structural equations are estimated using pooled state-level data for the period 1961-1977. In light of the model's results, the impact of changes in relative energy prices on irrigation can be examined.

Women-Owned Small Business Webinar, June 20, 2013 Women-Owned Small Business Webinar, June 20, 2013 The Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization hosted a webinar for women-owned small businesses on June 20, 2013, to provide overviews of major program offices in the Department of Energy and information about our development programs such as the Mentor Protégé Program. Download the following presentations from the webinar here: Office of Science Procurement Opportunities - Freda

The Energy & Environmental Research Center has completed the first phase of a 3-year, two-phase consortium project to develop and demonstrate mercury control technologies for utilities that burn lignite coal. The overall project goal is to maintain the viability of lignite-based energy production by providing utilities with low-cost options for meeting future mercury regulations. Phase I objectives are to develop a better understanding of mercury interactions with flue gas constituents, test a range of sorbent-based technologies targeted at removing elemental mercury (Hg{sup o}) from flue gases, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the most promising technologies at the pilot scale. The Phase II objectives are to demonstrate and quantify sorbent technology effectiveness, performance, and cost at a sponsor-owned and operated power plant. Phase I results are presented in this report along with a brief overview of the Phase II plans. Bench-scale testing provided information on mercury interactions with flue gas constituents and relative performances of the various sorbents. Activated carbons were prepared from relatively high-sodium lignites by carbonization at 400 C (752 F), followed by steam activation at 750 C (1382 F) and 800 C (1472 F). Luscar char was also steam-activated at these conditions. These lignite-based activated carbons, along with commercially available DARCO FGD and an oxidized calcium silicate, were tested in a thin-film, fixed-bed, bench-scale reactor using a simulated lignitic flue gas consisting of 10 {micro}g/Nm{sup 3} Hg{sup 0}, 6% O{sub 2}, 12% CO{sub 2}, 15% H{sub 2}O, 580 ppm SO{sub 2}, 120 ppm NO, 6 ppm NO{sub 2}, and 1 ppm HCl in N{sub 2}. All of the lignite-based activated (750 C, 1382 F) carbons required a 30-45-minute conditioning period in the simulated lignite flue gas before they exhibited good mercury sorption capacities. The unactivated Luscar char and oxidized calcium silicate were ineffective in capturing mercury. Lignite

Quiet, clean, and efficient, electric vehicles (EVs) may someday become a practical mode of transportation for the general public. Electric vehicles can provide many advantages for the nation's environment and energy supply because they run on electricity, which can be produced from many sources of energy such as coal, natural gas, uranium, and hydropower. These vehicles offer fuel versatility to the transportation sector, which depends almost solely on oil for its energy needs. Electric vehicles are any mode of transportation operated by a motor that receives electricity from a battery or fuel cell. EVs come in all shapes and sizes and may be used for different tasks. Some EVs are small and simple, such as golf carts and electric wheel chairs. Others are larger and more complex, such as automobile and vans. Some EVs, such as fork lifts, are used in industries. In this fact sheet, we will discuss mostly automobiles and vans. There are also variations on electric vehicles, such as hybrid vehicles and solar-powered vehicles. Hybrid vehicles use electricity as their primary source of energy, however, they also use a backup source of energy, such as gasoline, methanol or ethanol. Solar-powered vehicles are electric vehicles that use photovoltaic cells (cells that convert solar energy to electricity) rather than utility-supplied electricity to recharge the batteries. This paper discusses these concepts.

This report supplements the July 2003 report ''Distributed and Electric Power System Aggregation Model and Field Configuration Equivalency Validation Testing'' (NREL/SR-560-33909). The original report presented methods for calculating penetration limits for distributed energy resources interconnected with distribution circuits of utility-ownedelectric power systems. This report describes the algorithms required to develop application software to calculate penetration limits. The original report can be found at http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy03osti/33909.pdf.

Energy Saver » Buying and Making Electricity Buying and Making Electricity You can make your ownelectricity by installing a small solar electric (photovoltaic) system at your home. | Photo courtesy of Susan Bilo/NREL. You can make your ownelectricity by installing a small solar electric (photovoltaic) system at your home. | Photo courtesy of Susan Bilo/NREL. You can take advantage of clean, renewable energy by buying "green power" or by making your ownelectricity with a small home

Part 2 of this manual provides the electricutility engineer with detailed technical information on some of the major mechanical equipment used in the FGD system. The objectives of Part 2 are the following: to provide the electricutility engineer with information on equipment that may be unfamiliar to him, including ball mills, vacuum filters, and mist eliminators; and to identify the unique technique considerations imposed by an FGD system on more familiar electricutility equipment such as fans, gas dampers, piping, valves, and pumps. Part 3 provides an overview of the recommended procedures for evaluating proposals received from FGD system vendors. The objectives are to provide procedures for evaluating the technical aspects of proposals, and to provide procedures for determining the total costs of proposals considering both initial capital costs and annual operating and maintenance costs. The primary objective of Part 4 of this manual is to provide the utility engineer who has a special interest in the capabilities of FGDPRISM [Flue Gas Desulfurization PRocess Integration and Simulation Model] with more detailed discussions of its uses, requirements, and limitations. Part 5 is a case study in using this manual in the preparation of a purchase specification and in the evaluation of proposals received from vendors. The objectives are to demonstrate how the information contained in Parts 1 and 2 can be used to improve the technical content of an FGD system purchase specification; to demonstrate how the techniques presented in Part 3 can be used to evaluate proposals received in response to the purchase specification; and to illustrate how the FGDPRISM computer program can be used to establish design parameters for the specification and evaluate vendor designs.

Renewable energy certificates (RECs) represent the bundle of information that describes the characteristics of renewable electricity generation, and may be (and increasingly are) sold separately from the underlying electricity itself. RECs are a relatively new phenomenon, emerging as a tradable commodity in voluntary markets in the late 1990s, and gaining strength as a means of compliance with various state policy requirements affecting renewable generation in the early 2000s (Holt and Bird 2005). Twenty states and Washington, D.C. now have mandatory renewables portfolio standard (RPS) obligations, and most of these may be satisfied by owning and retiring RECs. Many states also have fuel source and emissions disclosure requirements, for which RECs are useful. Even where state policy does not allow unbundled and fully tradable RECs to meet these requirements, RECs may still be used as an accounting and verification tool (REC tracking systems are in place or under development in many regions of the U.S.). These applications, plus REC trading activity in support of voluntary green claims, give rise to potential ''double counting'' to the extent that the purchaser of the RECs and the purchaser of the underlying electricity both make claims to the renewable energy attributes of the facility in question (Hamrin and Wingate 2003). When renewable electricity is sold and purchased, an important question therefore arises: ''Who owns the RECs created by the generation of renewable energy?'' In voluntary transactions, most agree that the question of REC ownership can and should be negotiated between the buyer and the seller privately, and should be clearly established by contract. Claims about purchasing renewable energy should only be made if REC ownership can be documented. In many other cases, however, renewable energy transactions are either mandated or encouraged through state or federal policy. In these cases, the issue of REC ownership must often be answered by

Utility-Scale Wind Photo of two people standing on top of the nacelle of a utility-scale wind turbine. Wind is an important source of affordable, renewable energy, currently supplying nearly 5% of our nation's electricity demand. By generating electricity from wind turbines, the United States can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, diversify its energy supply, provide cost-competitive electricity to key coastal regions, and help revitalize key sectors of its economy, including manufacturing.

The once-placid electricutility industry has never seen anything like it. As the money tied up in unfinished nuclear power plants has mounted to alarming levels, banks have turned skittish and investors have fled, raising the threat of bankruptcy for some. But the web of troubles enveloping the utility industry reaches far beyond the nuclear basket cases and the hubbub over atomic power. More plant cancellations - coal as well as nuclear - less access to capital markets, and dwindling sympathy from regulators seem in the cards. Most disconcerting of all, the time-honored system of supplying, pricing, regulating, and financing electricity - a system that was not good enough to avert the present crisis - may be outmoded. If the industry cannot be kept viable, some foresee investor-ownedutilities going the way of the private urban mass-transit systems, becoming municipal, state, or even federal entities. Defaults or bankruptcies could also lead to greater concentration, with the stronger utilities picking off the weak. Some analysts, in fact, believe that the main threat posed by the current crisis is that no utility, investor, or lender will be willing to risk money to build capacity required in the future - if only to replace retiring plants. Without strong incentives - running counter to today's market forces - rescue mission is unlikely. The modest prospects for demand growth and the poor economics of new plants are relentlessly bringing the era of big central stations to an end.

A tri-generation concept is proposed for the 21st century for making liquid fuels and chemicals along with electricity using CO{sub 2} from flue gases of coal-based electric power plants. The CO{sub 2} from flue gas in the power plant can be converted with CH{sub 4} (natural gas) to form synthesis gas (CO and H{sub 2} mixture) using the waste heat in the power plant. The H{sub 2}O and O{sub 2} in the flue gas will be used as co-reactants and need not be separated from the flue gas. The hot synthesis gas can be used as feedstock for fuel cells for electricity generation (such as MCFC and SOFC). The hot synthesis gas can also be used for gas turbines to generate electricity. The synthesis gas at moderate temperature can be converted into chemicals and fuels, e.g., methanol and mixed alcohols for chemical and fuel uses, dimethylether (DME) and mixed ethers for diesel fuel, dimethyl carbonate and acetic acid for chemicals. The fuels thus produced may be used either for conventional IC engines or in fuel cell-driven vehicles. This concept could also be applied, in principle, for natural gas-based power plants and IGCC power plants.

Information is provided on electricity sales, associated revenue, average revenue per kilowatthour sold, and number of consumers throughout the US. The data provided in the Electric Sales and Revenue are presented at the national, Census division, State, and electricutility levels. The information is based on annual data reported by electricutilities for the calendar year ending December 31, 1996. 16 figs., 20 tabs.

When modeling solar energy technologies and other distributed energy systems, using high-quality expansive electricity rates is essential. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed a utility rate platform for entering, storing, updating, and accessing a large collection of utility rates from around the United States. This utility rate platform lives on the Open Energy Information (OpenEI) website, OpenEI.org, allowing the data to be programmatically accessed from a web browser, using an application programming interface (API). The semantic-based utility rate platform currently has record of 1,885 utility rates and covers over 85% of the electricity consumption in the United States.

This report describes a methodology for estimating the power and energy capacities for electricity energy storage systems that can be used to defer costly upgrades to fully overloaded, or nearly overloaded, transmission and distribution (T&D) nodes. This ''sizing'' methodology may be used to estimate the amount of storage needed so that T&D upgrades may be deferred for one year. The same methodology can also be used to estimate the characteristics of storage needed for subsequent years of deferral.

Methodology and Documentation General The Electricity Monthly Update is prepared by the Electric Power Operations Team, Office of Electricity, Renewables and Uranium Statistics, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. Department of Energy. Data published in the Electricity Monthly Update are compiled from the following sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-826,"Monthly ElectricUtility Sales and Revenues with State Distributions Report," U.S. Energy

The Site Operator Program has evolved substantially since its inception in response to the Electric Vehicle Research and Demonstration Act of 1976. In its original form, a commercialization effort was intended but this was not feasible for lack of vehicle suppliers and infrastructure. Nonetheless, with DOE sponsorship and technical participation, a few results (primarily operating experience and data) were forthcoming. The current Program comprises eleven sites and over 200 vehicles, of which about 50 are latest generation vehicles. DOE partially funds the Program participant expenditures and the INEL receives operating and maintenance data for the DOE-owned, and participant-owned or monitored vehicles, as well as Program reports. As noted elsewhere in this report, participants represent several widely differing categories: electricutilities, academic institutions, and federal agencies. While both the utilities and the academic institutions tend to establish beneficial relationships with the industrial community.

DOE Office of Science (SC) Beating Nature at her Own Game? Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) EFRCs Home Centers Research Science Highlights News & Events EFRC News EFRC Events DOE Announcements Publications History Contact BES Home 08.24.11 Stories of Discovery & Innovation: Beating Nature at her Own Game? Print Text Size: A A A Subscribe FeedbackShare Page New catalyst speeds conversion of electricity to hydrogen fuel. This work, featured in the Office of Science's Stories of

This document summarizes pertinent statistics on various aspects of the U.S. electric power industry for the year and includes a graphic presentation. Data is included on electricutility retail sales and revenues, financial statistics, environmental statistics of electricutilities, demand-side management, electric power transactions, and non-utility power producers.

The software package provides several utilities written in LabView. These utilities don't form independent programs, but rather can be used as a library or controls in other labview programs. The utilities include several new controls (xcontrols), VIs for input and output routines, as well as other 'helper'-functions not provided in the standard LabView environment.

Support Services to Savannah River Operations Office | Department of Energy Awards Native American, Tribally-Owned Small Business Contract for Support Services to Savannah River Operations Office DOE Awards Native American, Tribally-Owned Small Business Contract for Support Services to Savannah River Operations Office September 21, 2012 - 5:16pm Addthis John H. Hale III John H. Hale III Director, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Editor's Note: This announcement was

The California Climate Action Registry, which will begin operation in Fall 2002, is a voluntary registry for California businesses and organizations to record annual greenhouse gas emissions. Reporting of emissions in the Registry by a participant involves documentation of both ''direct'' emissions from sources that are under the entity's control and ''indirect'' emissions controlled by others. Electricity generated by an off-site power source is considered to be an indirect emission and must be included in the entity's report. Published electricity emissions factors for the State of California vary considerably due to differences in whether utility-owned out-of-state generation, non-utility generation, and electricity imports from other states are included. This paper describes the development of three methods for estimating electricity emissions factors for calculating the combined net carbon dioxide emissions from all generating facilities that provide electricity to Californians. We find that use of a statewide average electricity emissions factor could drastically under- or over-estimate an entity's emissions due to the differences in generating resources among the utility service areas and seasonal variations. In addition, differentiating between marginal and average emissions is essential to accurately estimate the carbon dioxide savings from reducing electricity use. Results of this work will be taken into consideration by the Registry when finalizing its guidance for use of electricity emissions factors in calculating an entity's greenhouse gas emissions.

This report contains the energy use data for Wisconsin's 32 largest state-owned government facilities. These facilities account for the majority of both fuels consumed in Wisconsin state buildings and total state-owned gross square footage. Figures for each agency reflect buildings owned but not necessarily occupied by that agency. Information is presented for each of the sixteen years from and including the base year, fiscal 1972--1973 (chosen because it was the last year before the oil embargo). Agencies addressed in this report are the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the University of Wisconsin System (UWS), the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), and the Department of Administration (DOA). 16 figs., 40 tabs.

Department of Energy Utilities Bringing More Solar Energy to Families and Businesses Utilities Bringing More Solar Energy to Families and Businesses January 26, 2016 - 12:26pm Addthis This two megawatt installation at Denver International Airport is owned by Constellation Energy, a utility based in Baltimore, MD. (Photo Courtesy: Denver International Airport) This two megawatt installation at Denver International Airport is owned by Constellation Energy, a utility based in Baltimore, MD.

The performance, economics and technical feasibility of heavy duty combustion turbine power systems incorporating two advanced power generation schemes have been estimated to assess the potential merits of these advanced technologies. The advanced technologies considered were: Thermochemical Recuperation (TCR), and Partial Oxidation (PO). The performance and economics of these advanced cycles are compared to conventional combustion turbine Simple-Cycles and Combined-Cycles. The objectives of the Westinghouse evaluation were to: (1) simulate TCR and PO power plant cycles, (2) evaluate TCR and PO cycle options and assess their performance potential and cost potential compared to conventional technologies, (3) identify the required modifications to the combustion turbine and the conventional power cycle components to utilize the TCR and PO technologies, (4) assess the technical feasibility of the TCR and PO cycles, (5) identify what development activities are required to bring the TCR and PO technologies to commercial readiness. Both advanced technologies involve the preprocessing of the turbine fuel to generate a low-thermal-value fuel gas, and neither technology requires advances in basic turbine technologies (e.g., combustion, airfoil materials, airfoil cooling). In TCR, the turbine fuel is reformed to a hydrogen-rich fuel gas by catalytic contact with steam, or with flue gas (steam and carbon dioxide), and the turbine exhaust gas provides the indirect energy required to conduct the endothermic reforming reactions. This reforming process improves the recuperative energy recovery of the cycle, and the delivery of the low-thermal-value fuel gas to the combustors potentially reduces the NO{sub x} emission and increases the combustor stability.

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission is authorized by statute to regulate gas and electricutilities. The Commission consists of three elected commissioners each of whom serves for a six year term. The Commissioners are elected by district and each must, at the time of election, be a resident of the district from which he has been elected. Each Commissioner must reside in the state capital and devote his entire time to the duties of his office. The Commission is part of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Protection. Municipal power to regulate privately ownedelectric and gas public utilities was terminated in 1975. A municipally-ownedelectricutility has the authority to regulate the sale, use, and rates of electric power and energy which it provides. The Commission has no authority to regulate steam, heat, and refrigeration systems; that power resides in cities. Public utility regulatory statutes, energy facility siting programs, and municipal franchising authority are examined to identify how they may impact on the ability of an organization, whether or not it be a regulated utility, to construct and operate an ICES.

Since 1935, the federal government of the United States has administered a program designed to make electricity available to rural Americans. This dissertation traces the history of the rural electrification program, as well as its costs. While the Congress intended to simply provide help in building the capital structure of rural electric distribution systems, the program continues to flourish some 35 years after these systems first fully covered the countryside. Once the rural distribution systems were built, the government began to provide cooperatives with billions of dollars in subsidized loans for the generation of electric power. Although this program costs the taxpayers nearly $1 billion per year, no one has ever tested its efficacy. The coops' owner/members do not have the right to trade their individual ownership shares. The RECs do not fully exploit the scale and scope economies observed in the investor-owned sector of this industry. This dissertation compares the relative productive efficiencies of the RECs and the investor-ownedelectricutilities (IOUs) in the United States. Using multiproduct translog cost functions, the estimated costs of cooperatives are compared to those of IOUs in providing identical output bundles. Three separate products are considered as outputs: (1) wholesale power; (2) power sold to large industrial customers; and (3) power sold to residential and commercial customers. It is estimated that, were the RECs forced to pay market prices for their inputs, their costs would exceed those incurred by the IOUs by about 24 percent. Several policy recommendations are made: (1) the RECs should be converted to stockholder-owned, tax-paying corporations; (2) the government should discontinue its subsidized loan program; (3) the government should sell its hydroelectric power at market prices, nullifying the current preference given to cooperatives and municipal distributors in the purchase of this currently underpriced power.

The Electric Sales and Revenue is prepared by the Coal and Electric Data and Renewables Division; Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels; Energy Information Administration (EIA); US Department of Energy. Information is provided on electricity sales, associated revenue, average revenue per kilowatthour sold, and number of consumers throughout the United States. The data provided in the Electric Sales and Revenue are presented at the national, Census division, State, and electricutility levels. The information is based on annual data reported by electricutilities for the calendar year ending December 31, 1994.

The Electric Sales and Revenue is prepared by the Electric Power Division; Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels; Energy Information Administration (EIA); US Department of Energy. Information is provided on electricity sales, associated revenue, average revenue per kilowatthour sold, and number of consumers throughout the US. The data provided in the Electric Sales and Revenue are presented at the national, Census division, State, and electricutility levels. The information is based on annual data reported by electricutilities for the calendar year ending December 31, 1997. 16 figs., 17 tabs.

The Tribe is working to reduce energy consumption and expense in Tribally-owned governmental buildings and low income housing sites. In 2009, the Tribe applied to the U. S. Department of Energy for funding to conduct energy audits of Tribally-owned governmental buildings. Findings from the energy audits would define the extent and types of energy efficiency improvements needed, establish a basis for energy priorities, strategies and action plans, and provide a benchmark for measuring improvements from energy efficiency implementations. In 2010, the DOE awarded a grant in the amount of $95,238 to the Tribe to fund the energy audits of nine governmental buildings and to pay for travel expenses associated with attendance and participation at the DOE annual program reviews. In 2011, the Tribe applied for and was awarded a DOE grant in the amount of $75,509 to conduct energy audits of the remaining 30 Tribally-owned governmental buildings. Repeating mobilization steps performed during the first DOE energy audits grant, the Tribe initiated the second round of governmental building energy audits by completing energy auditor procurement. The selected energy auditor successfully passed DOE debarment and Sault Tribe background clearances. The energy audits contract was awarded to U. P. Engineers and Architects, Inc. of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The Tribe continued mobilizing for the energy audits by providing the energy auditor with one year of electric, gas and water utility invoice copies per building, as well as supplemental building information, such as operating hours. The Tribe also contacted building occupants to coordinate scheduling for the on-site energy audit inspections and arranged for facilities management personnel to guide the energy auditor through the buildings and answer questions regarding building systems.

The United States Electricity Industry Primer provides a high-level overview of the U.S. electricity supply chain, including generation, transmission, and distribution; markets and ownership structures, including utilities and regulatory agencies; and system reliability and vulnerabilities.